Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Birmingham: day 1
Dear reader,
I thought it might be fun to try to make a date day to day blog sequence of my trip to Birmingham for those of you who would like to know how I am holding up haha.
Well in the morning I was really nervous when going to the airport, but then one of the street musicians came (unwittingly) to my rescue. A Jamaican street artist stepped into the subway with a guitar and a harmonica. The first song that he played was: Can you feel the love tonight by Elton John… :P Disney always makes me feel better. This was followed by Let it be by the Beatles, a song that sounded familiar, but I have no idea what it was called and finally closed off by ‘and the saints come marching in’. So by the time I had to get off the subway and into the train, I was all cheered up, because the guy was really good haha.
When my dad and I arrived at the airport my fiance was waiting for us. We went to the departures hall and I checked in using the check-in machines that they now have (which was quite an adventure). I also had to check in my luggage using the baggage drop off machines… Now I really do not think this is an improvement, because a lot of people seem to be lost (I am not sure why, because it really is quite simple and they show an instruction video on what you need to do, but ok), causing there to be a huge line. Afterwards I said goodbye to dad and my fiance and went through boarder control. I walked around on the airport a bit after which I went through customs and boarded the plane. I was really really happy that there weren’t any delays, because I honestly would not have known what to do with that much time on my hands.
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Penguins, theatre and Abunai!!! (With pictures)
Dear readers,
Well this sure was a busy week for me, so prepare yourself for a long blogpost! :D
On Thursday evening, after work, I met up with my fiance and we had dinner with my mom and dad at my place. Subsequently we went to the cinema for a lovely date. We watched the movie Mr. Poppers Penguins. I have never really been a big Jim Carry fan (the only movie that I really love is The Gringe that stole Christmas), so I did not really have high expectations for this movie... and I ended up being pleasantly surprised! This movie truly has a bit of everything. It is romantic, touching, but most of all hilarious. It was quite a relieve to find that this time the humor in the movie was not rely entirely on the strange faces Carry makes or just plain (and sometimes rather obscene) jokes. Instead the humor is based on the funny situations that one could find himself in when having to deal with 6 penguins, but also just on situation that might easily happen in everyday life. The comical timing of Carry is absolutely superb. This is thus definitely a must see.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
New layout
Well it is now more than a year ago that I started this blog, so what better way to celebrate than by changing the layout? I had not changed the layout up till now, because I became quite frustrated with blogger when I was creating the first layout for this website. I do not really know much CSS (which is the code that is needed to create layouts for blogger), so I could not really get the result that I wanted. I had even tried to insert a layout made by someone else, but even that would not work. So, even though I received a lot of compliments on my previous layout, I was not really too happy with it. It looked a little amaturistic hahaha.
Yesterday, however, I decided to have a look around to see if there were any good template makers which would allow me to make a layout that looked a lot less amaturistic than my previous layout. It was then that I stumbled upon a program called Artisteer. This is without a doubt one of the best template makers I have EVER encounterd. The templates that you can design are compatable with Wordpress and Blogger. You have to buy the program (the trail version does not allow you to save your designs), but since it was only 35 euro's (50 dollars) I thought it was well worth the money. Some of you might think: why on earth buy a program to create a weblog? Well, if I get a PHD possition (I am really giving it my all to get one) I am planning to make a weblog on which I keep track of the entire process that I will be going through. Thus it will be important to make a good impression with my weblog. And since I do not have the time to learn CSS, this was the best solution.
Another big pro of this program is that it will easily let you create your own website. I know a lot about HTML, so I am pretty good with making websites, however, this program allows me to generate dropdown menus and such (something which I cannot do with html). So for people who do not know CSS or PHP this is the PERFECT sollution. It even allows you to make one page of your website into a blog; something which you could also easily use for the first page on which you put the updates for your webiste. Also the program allows you to use HTML in the body of your website, which is very convenient if you want to insert some nifty gadgets.
The only downside to this program is that I had to give up my custom made kalendar and counter for my website, since the javascript that I used for those messed up my layout (or well... almost crashed my weblog hahah). But yes, all in all I am very enthausiastic about this program. I think it is one of the best buys I ever did.
Well as you can see I have also added a few pages to my weblog such as an 'about me' page and a 'links' page. I have have also given the fancliques and adoptables their own page, so as to 'declutter' the blog haha. I want to add a few more pages in the near future, but I am not sure which pages to add. If you have any ideas than please feel free to tell me about them in a comment ;).
It is also now possible to subscribe to my blog. If you do this then you automatically receive an e-mail whenever I update my weblog ;).
Well so much for the updates to my weblog. Please let me know what you think of the new layout :D.
Love,
Blacky
Monday, 15 August 2011
Reviews of the reading for my tutorial
Dear reader,
As most of you know I had decided to take upon me the (perhaps rather crazy) task to already start reading for my tutorial during the summer holiday. Well it sure has kept me from feeling bored. So far I have finished 4 out of the 15 books and I am actually ahead of the schedule that I had created for myself. As such I thought this would be a good opportunity to give my opinion of the books that I have read for those who are interested.
The first book that I have read was Death in the Victorian family by Pat Jalland.
I really could not have started my journey with a better book. It contains a lot of information on Victorian death, mourning and funerals and the mentalities towards it. Instead of burying her reader under a mountain of pure facts (as many an author does), Jalland has chosen a different path. The facts that she incorporates in her book are illustrated by excerpts that she encountered in private journals and letters (these make up the bulk of the examples) as well as in literature and poetry. The book is divided in two sections, the first is about death and the second about mourning. To be honest, I could not help but think that Jalland would have done well to give up such a distinction as in the first section she already pays a lot of attention to mourning (it is almost impossible to speak of death without talking of mourning in one way or another), causing the second half of the book to be extremely repetitive (she sometimes even used the same examples as in the section on death) and (in my opinion) a bit too long. But that really is all the fault I could find with this book.
Another reason why this book should be interesting for anyone interested in Victorian death and mourning is that the book contains a world of references to the most important work that has been done with regard to Victorian death and mourning. The drawing up of a preliminary bibliography if one were to write an essay on the subject, would thus become a lot easier with the help of this book.
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
Going to Disney! :D
Dear reader,
Well I promised I would write to you about the reward I am giving myself for being brave enough to go on a four day trip all by myself... And that reward is... A three day trip to Disney! Ha! I bet you didn’t see that coming ^__^”... Most of you probably did hahah.
Remember that I blogged about the friend I had not seen for about 2 years not too long ago? Well she was looking for a victim to drag along to Disney with her. And who am I to say no to such a tempting invitation? Haha. She lives quite close to the boarder between Belgium and The Netherlands and thus it is a 4 hour drive by car to France. We are planning to go from October 7-9, so we will arrive on Friday and return Sunday night.
Monday, 1 August 2011
BAVS Conference in Birmingham
Dear reader,
Yesterday I booked my flight to Birmingham as well as the accommodation and entrance fee for the conference that I am going to attend there. The conference is held by the British Association of Victorian Studies and will take place at the University of Birmingham on September 1-3. This year’s conference is entitled ‘Composition and Decomposition’.
As many of you know I will be going by myself... and to be honest, I am a little anxious about it. I have always disliked being alone (since it is not much fun), but I will have to learn sometime. Also, since I want to pursue a PHD position it would be a good idea to start going to conferences and symposia to gain experience, as well as to start networking (not like I am such a hero in that respect either, but ok hahah). And when there is no one who can/wishes to come with you (for these conferences really are pricy O.o), going alone is the only option hahah!
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