Dear reader,

Well the past few days have been filled with what the British have called ‘decluttering’. My mum finally realized that she should get rid of the old things… So I finally managed to get her to allow me to throw away some of the old childrens’ books that she once bought for me, but which I never read. So now I finally have some room for new stuff!!!! Yeay for more room.

Well today was my first day of internship. I was quite nervous, so I did not get much sleep last night… So I went there while I was quite tired. He gave me a tour around the shop (explaining to me where what book sections were located etc.) and then started to teach me how the systems which they use to keep track of their stock and to manage the website worked.

Dear reader,

Well I guess the title says it all. Today I will be writing to you about M. Night Shymalan’s new movie ‘The Last Airbender’. I watched this movie yesterday and frankly… it was one hell of a disappointment. It is definitely somewhere at the top of my ‘worst movie ever’ top 10. In this review I will not give a plot summary (since you can find those everywhere on the net), but I will discuss the casting, setting, acting etc.

Seeing that the movie is based on the Avatar series, I had expected that the actors would have been casted to fit the profile of the characters in the series… I could not have been more wrong. The only character that actually looks like the character in the series is Aang. Where as in the series most of the other characters are either Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian etc. (and thus coloured), here most of the characters are white. The exceptions are Prince Zuko, Commander Zhao and Fire Lord Ozai… which for some reason are all Indian (don’t ask). Also Zuko’s Uncle Iroh is no longer the fattish, old Chinese man, but has suddenly also become white and has lost quite a few kilo’s. If the director made these changes in the characters on purpose in order to distance himself from the cartoon series, I do not know. If we look at it in this light, it would then make sense that he tried to change the actual character (rather than just appearance) of some of the characters. For example, Sokka is now no longer a boy who is a little clumsy and constantly makes stupid jokes, but is now a boy on a voyage to manhood who actually looks like he is rather capable and has lost his sense of humor all together. However, by just changing the character of one protagonist, this does not work at all. Katara is still the motherly type (or at least… this is what becomes clear from the dialogue), that looks after Aang; Aang is still the boy who struggles to come to terms with being the Avatar (or at least… the story tells us this); and Zuko, other than suddenly having become Indian and losing his long hair, is really just the ‘proud and seeking for revenge’ Zuko that we know from the series. So if this is in fact what the director was trying to do, then he failed in his purpose.

Here are some pictures with the characters and their human counterparts just for your amusement:

Dear reader,

Again two days have passed without a post… This time, however, I have a very good reason for it. Namely, I have been very busy. On Monday I went to the movies with a friend, and later on my mother’s cousin came to visit. Yesterday we went to meet really good friends of the family, whom we hadn’t seen for about a year. So yeah, busy, busy, busy.

Well as I said on Monday I met up with a good friend of mine to see a movie. We went to the new Disney movie The Sorcerer´s apprentice. I had expected the movie to be rather predictable, just another ‘boy saves the world with magic’ feel good movie. I could not have been more wrong. The plot behind the movie was surprising and the dialogue at times was funny.

Dear reader,

I apologise for not posting the past two days, but I have been rather busy with taking care of things for the student organization and I have not really been myself. But I will not bore you with that. Oh and yeay this is my 25 post! Whoot things are going great this time :D. I'm actually pretty proud of keeping up so well with the posting (ok I did mess up the past two days, but hey, I'm just a beginner ;)). Well on with what I wanted to write about.

As I was watching a Youtube video I remembered that when I last met with a group of my secondary school friends we asked each other the question ‘What do you think your life will be like in ten years?’ We had already answered that question half a year ago and the changes in the answers were really quite amazing. Keeping this in mind, I decided to contribute a post to answering this question, so I can come back again to it within half a year or maybe a year to see if my perspectives have changed.

Dear reader,

Well today I would like to talk to you about Role Playing. At the beginning of the vacation I decided to join a forum called Desert Anime of which a good friend of mine (who lives in America) is the moderator. In the past I joined several non-RP forums, but often did not visit it for over a month. Somehow I always felt like I did not fit in or something… I am not too sure why. But I do not have this problem with my friend’s RP forum AT ALL. Everyone is really friendly. They were kind enough the help me out in the beginning, since I had never RP-ed before. But I am definitely getting the hang of it. I have also started to edit the fan fiction of one of the characters on the forum called Samir. The owner of that character has dyslexia, so she asked if someone could edit her stories. I volunteered, because I could most of the time make out what she was trying to say. :D Also, she is really good at writing, so it really is a pleasure. The same person made a Chibi drawing of my characters along with some of the other characters that we are/were often chatting with.


Isn’t mine cute? It does the; omg, it’s so quite *squeal* pose :D. I guess I made my character a bit too much like me in some aspects hahaha.

Dear reader,

Yesterday afternoon my new cell phone arrived!!!! Hurray!
Don’t get me wrong, my previous cell phone was working just fine… however it was a touch screen. And apparently touch screen and me do not make a very good team. Somehow when typing a message I kept on pressing a wrong button at least ones every time! The phone came with my 2 year contract… so I was too proud to give in and buy a new one (after all, I was paying for the damned thing). But seeing that the contract will come to an end in the beginning of November and I will be switching to a Sim Only contract. I thought it high time to free myself from the annoying touch screen and get myself a different phone. I finally decided on buying a clamshell model, since I had one before and I thought it was quite convenient… Well truth be told, there wasn’t a whole lot of choice. Most models that they have been bringing out are either very simple and do not have a camera (worth mentioning) or they are extremely ugly.

Dear reader,

Well I’m back to being busy, busy, busy! I only have two weeks of vacation left before my internship and school start again… And I still want to do so many things! There are still some friends which I want to meet before I get all tangled up in schoolwork again… School really is not that good for your social life. So yesterday I met with a friend who I had not seen for I think half a year? Though we do keep in touch through msn and stuff. And tonight I am going over to my boyfriend’s sister’s place where we (my bf and I) will be dining together with her and her boyfriend. I am really looking forward to it, since we really do get along. We both like cute things, history and literature… so yep; we have LOTS to talk about hahaha.

Dear reader,

Well today is the day of the fourth and final (and maybe the most useful) tip.

Tip 4: How to get yourself to actually stick to your to do lists and homework schedules.
Well since this step is rather tricky I am going to provide you with a couple of options depending on the level of discipline you already have.

Dear reader,

I apologize for the one day delay: I couldn’t get round to posting yesterday. Well, here is tip number 3!

Tip 3: Making to do lists and homework schedules.

Section 1: Making a to do list.
It is always handy to make a to do list while studying. This will enable you to see in one glance what is that needs to be done for this week. Also, by making such a list the chances of you missing a deadline, because you ‘did not know you had to do it’ decrease rapidly. (I would really advice you to do this: I do it myself as well).
How do you make a to do list? Well it is very easy. You open a word document and fill in the days of the week on which you have school. Under each day you add the assignment and homework that needs to be done for that week. If you have several subjects on the same day, it is advisable to add what homework needs to be done for what subject. Here you will find a (fictional... and rather optimistic lol) example of what my to do list usually looks like.

Dear reader,

Well, as promised here is tip number 2!

Tip 2: Orientate yourself on your goal.
Although you have done some research before choosing your goal, it is very important to gather some more information afterwards as well. Try to find out what exactly will be expected of you on the road to get there, and you will not find yourself confronted with sudden surprises. When you, for example, start a new study it might be useful to take a good look at the study guide (every university has one) to see what types of subjects you will be doing; not only for the coming semester, but for all three or four (or more) years of your study. By doing so you will be preparing yourself for the types of subjects which you will encounter and you will be able to form a picture of the amount of work which it might prove to be. Of course this is not possible by merely reading the course description, but also by looking at the books which are mentioned in the study guide. You could try to see if some of them are available on google books, so you can have a peak at them (just for the meantime if you have not yet ordered or bought your book). The amount of work might seem a bit much if you view everything at once, but do not let yourself get discouraged: you do not have to read these books all at the same time. You will be offered a schedule by your instructors, which will make the course material come across as more structured and clear.

Dear reader,

As a lot of people have asked me how I became as disciplined as I am today when it comes to studying, and how they could become as disciplined themselves, I have decided to post some tips in my blog. I was actually planning on giving a couple of quick tips… but seeing that there are so many situations and so many methods to be explained, I have decided to dedicate several blogposts to the subject. It will be somewhat like a series of posts. I will add a new post every day. Please note that I do not follow a study in psychiatry or psychology and that I have merely drawn on my own experiences with studying, as well as of those people around me, for the ideas and tips that I will be posting.

Over the years some people have pointed out that I have what they call ‘iron discipline’.
When it comes to studying I am hardworking and no matter how much I dislike to do something, I still do it as it has to be done. And no, with doing it I do not mean doing it half heartedly or rushing through it; no I spend just as much time and thought on it as on the other things that I do like. However, this does not mean that it is always easy for me to do so. It hardly ever is. I am not super human and probably hate it as much everyone else. How many times I have for example cursed the book ‘The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman’ I do not remember, but I really wanted to ritually burn it after finishing it. So in this respect I am no different from anyone, and can therefore perfectly understand why others do not do it. Now remains the question: how on earth do we get ourselves to do the things we dislike? Time for tip number 1 ;).

(Please note that the first section is for those of you who are leaving high school and those who are searching to find a new studies. The second and third section is for people who have already chosen their studies or goal).

Dear reader,

Well another hyped up post from yours truly. From now on, Tuesday is going to be my favourite day of the week. Why, you ask? Well, simply because a lot of good things happen on Tuesdays. Last week I received a call from an employment agency, who invited me for a job interview, I went there just in case I would not get hired for the internship for which I had applied at a book concern called Athenaeum. On the same day I received an e-mail with the date and time for my job interview at the Athenaeum book concern. Also, it was at that day that I visited the Gothic Lolita shop (to which I devoted an entire blogpost).

Well yesterday was another great day.

Dear reader,

Today one of my teachers has been so kind as to publish the reading list for one of the courses which I will be taking, called Classics: Death and Mourning.
I will have to read seven books in total:

Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886)
Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985)
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice (1912)
Sophocles, Antigone (~442 BC)
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930)
Assia Djebar, Algerian White (1995)
José Saramago, Death at Intervals (2005) [also translated as Death with Interruptions]

Dear reader,

Today I finished reading Lewis Caroll´s Through the Looking-glass and Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of being Earnest”. I had already read Alice in Wonderland and thought it would be a pity not to read the sequel, especially since I have The Complete Works of Lewis Caroll on my bookshelf. It is rather different from Alice in Wonderland in that she does not fall through a rabbit hole, but voluntarily goes through the mirror in the drawing room, which allows her to access what she calls the ‘looking-glass house’. Here she meets all types of creatures; though they primarily are chess pieces rather than cards. Again, imagination and nonsense prevail. None of the grown-ups ever make any sense in Caroll’s works, but that is not that odd seeing that to little children they hardly ever do.

Dear reader,

Well as you have noticed, I did not post an entry yesterday… and I had a very good reason for it. I was out of town and only returned late that evening. In the afternoon we went to a Disney Store and in the evening… we went to see the (Disney!) musical Mary Poppins.

As always I greatly enjoyed my visit to the Disney store… And as always it took me quite a while to decide what to buy… because there are always so many wonderful things to see and to buy! I eventually came home with a plushy. It’s a plushy of Christmas pluche of Stitch. Last year during Christmas I was already thinking of buy it, as it is extremely cute. However, I decided to spend my money on something else. And seeing that this pluche was the last one on all the Disney stores in Holland… I just HAD to grab my chance now. I know that I am a bit early with buying something for Christmas…. But seeing that Christmas is my favourite time of the year, and that I am one of those people who are stuck with Christmas songs in their head for most of the year, I thought: ah what the heck. Let’s buy it!
So… here’s a picture!

Dear reader,

Today I will write about another one of my addictions. It is only until after starting this blog that I discovered how numerous they are hahaha. Today I will be talking about the oldest and earliest of my addictions… Disney! Why Disney all of a sudden? Well because I am going to a Disney store tomorrow!... And I’m pretty much hyped up because of that hahha. It’s the first time that my mom is also going to a Dutch Disney store… So with a little bit of luck I will be able to convince her to buy some things as well, so as to add them to our collection hahaha.

Ever since I was a child I have loved the Disney movies. Now that I am 21 years I think my addiction is even bigger hahah. I have almost every Disney movie. The only exception is The Hunchback of the Notredam. That movie is just so sad and there is so much injustice (even though in the end they all live happily ever after) that somehow I have never been able to sit through it entirely. I do absolutely love the songs. Especially the song that Esmeralda sings: ‘God help the outcasts’ (and no I am not religious). For those of you who do not know it yet, here is a youtube clip. (If you cry easily, I suggest you first fetch your box of tissues before viewing it).
(video is under the cut)

Dear reader,

Well today I will write an answer to a Plinky prompt. Not because I have run out of things to write about, but simply because this particular Plinky prompt is interesting and quite applicable to an experience that I had today.

The plinky promt is ‘Share one thing that you learned recently’. If you think carefully about it, you learn something new every day. And there are many categories into which these newly learned things may fall. It can, for example, be something about yourself, something about someone close to you, something related to your studies or maybe just something that you have seen and made you think that was worth remembering simply because you found it interesting.

Dear reader,


My ramblings today will be on nothing other than Sherlock Holmes. No, I will not be talking about the novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (for I have not read them yet… I know… shame on me) but I will be discussing the new bbc series which is currently being aired. The series is called Sherlock and is a modern version of Sherlock Holmes. At first I did not exactly know what to expect, but whatever it was, I was convinced that I was absolutely going to hate it… I usually dislike modern adaption’s of older stories (which is why I probably disliked the movie Guy Richie recently made… or even the old ‘modernized’ version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio). However, I was curious and wanted to at least see what they had done with it. I sat myself down on the couch in front of the TV and prepared myself for at least 30 minutes of embarrassment, agitation… and other types of torture (yes I had decided that I would at least have the decency to watch at least 30 minutes of it before turning it off… I thought I would owe the director that much). And so I watched… and watched the entire 1,5 hours and was amazed, happy, excited (no not in that way you perverted reader!) and absolutely hooked!

Dear reader,

Well so far the blog thingy is really going very well this time. I have written something everyday (when I was at home that is hahaha). :D I'm actually getting a little proud of it hahaha.

Well today I went to Bilthoven with my best friend to visit the only Elegant Gothic Lolita shop that we have in the Netherlands called Murai fasion (click the name if you are interested in seeing the website). As I am a cuteness addict and absolutely love the Victorian age this type of clothing is quite a dangerous combo for me hahaha. Elegant Gothic Lolita is a clothing style developed in Japan by an artist called Mana, which is greatly inspired on the type of clothing that people wore during the Victorian age. The clothes are quite recognizable as it is often decorated with bows and frills. The skirts and dresses are often knee-length, under which they wear a petticoat and bloomers. They often wear knee socks with either a cute pattern or frills as well. There are different styles of Elegant Gothic Lolita, but I won't bore you with that. I myself prefer the Sweet Lolita style. The purpose of dressing up as a Sweet Lolita is purely to look cute and absolutely adorable ;).

Dear reader,
As you might already know I will begin my Research Master Literary Studies this coming year. And frankly.... I am really, really looking forward to it? Why? Well, because this master will allow me to compile my own program. Each semester I will have one 10 ECT subject which is compulsory. Since you have to do 30 ETC each semester, this leaves me with 20 ECT. I can then chose which subjects I will be taking myself, as long as together they make up the other 20 ETC. In this master my focus will lie on Victorian literature. Ever since I have come into contact with this particular time period through the course Victorian Literature which I had to follow, I have simply fallen in love with it.

Dear reader,
Well I am finally back home :D! My boyfriend and I finally returned home yesterday. And as promised I will now give you guys a (not too detailed) account of our journey (…else I would probably end up writing 4 pages full). On Sunday July 25 my boyfriend and I left for Brussels. The next day we left for Brussels South at half past 8 (yes we had to get up at half past 6 x__x) to get the Thalys (high speed train) to Paris du Nord. Due to reasons unknown the train left 15 minutes later than it should have… and due to some problems with the signals we eventually arrived at Paris du Nord half an hour late. So my boyfriend and I literally had to run all the way to the subway to reach Montparnasse and from the subway to the train station, for we had to catch the TGV (another high speed train) to Brest. If I we had arrived one minute later than we did, we would not have been able to catch it. Finally, at about 3.35 PM we arrived at Landerneau, where we were picked up by my boyfriend’s father Robert and his sister Joske.