Brokeback Mountain (9/10)

Brokeback Mountain (2005)Brokeback Mountain

I have been thinking about what it is that made this film so special. Well the fact that it is about a lovestory between 2 cowboys in the USA is quite original. And controversal, and as far from mainstream as you can get. All good ingredients for an interesting film. And their love story hits you just as hard as any other lovestory would have done. Maybe it hits you harder, because of the more or less hopeless situation the two men are in. 2 gay men, both cowboys, in a part of the USA where gay men not exactly were welcome. Far from welcome, the film actually shows clips about how villages react on gay people. And therefore they have to hide their love for the world. They both marry and have kids, and try to live a “normal” life. For years they only meet some weekends a year, which is tearing them both apart. They live this life for more than 20 years. And that certainly makes you think.

Ang Lee had already proven himself by making films like Crouching Tiger and the Icestorm. Jake Gyllenhaal was surprisingly (I had only seen him in The Day After Tomorrow) good . And Heath Ledger is excellent in this film, as the somehow silent and drawback Ennis.
The story is very gripping, their tenderness is heartbreaking, and their inability to be together is frustrating. You better take some kleenex with you when seeing this film. I needed it.

A must see : 9/10.

(Plasticbag.org has an interesting review of this film)

WordPress 2.0 praise

You know what, I am going to write a post about WordPress 2.0 again. The last time I did that I got 17 comments, which is close to a record, so I finally know how to please my readers.

No seriously, I have to write a post about WordPress 2.0 because I am incredibly stupid. There you go. I am not too afraid to admit it.

The thing is – I installed the new version of Ultimate Tag Warrior on my WordPress 2.0 Bill blog, And that doesn’t need to be a problem. It only is a problem if you are as stupid as I am. I was entering loads of tags, seperating them by spaces (where did I get that idea from ?) in stead of comma’s. Now this is again a “don’t try this at home kids” one (I soon am going to create a separate category for that) . Seperating tags with spaces messes things up. And the worst thing is that I was ignorant enough to post it as a bug on the UTW forum too. And that I blamed WordPress for it of course.

Seperating tags with spaces messes up the new post preview. Seperating tags with spaces makes your tags input field disappear. Separating tags with spaces causes minimized Ajax / AZ / Crystal Palace boxes to open up again next time you edit a post. Seperating tags with spaces nearly caused all the problems I was ranting about wednesday.

So I learned quite a bit today, not the least how high the level of my stupidity actually is. And by actually seperating my tags with comma’s, I am quite the happy WordPress 2.0 user again.

So my apologies to all the people I offended with my ignorance. I can live with the image uploader, and the overcrowded dashboard, well I solved that with a hack.

WordPress 2.0 is great – and the Girl soon wants to be top of the Bill too.

Denmark certainly is trying

Inspector Lynley - Nathaniel Parker
to convince the girl not to leave.

Although I haven’t really seriously been looking for a new job in Denmark, this last year, I did register my CV at several jobsites. But my experience with those sites is that you (the person looking for a job) should be the person to be active, and don’t expect the people having the job to hunt you down. I never got any response on my CV. And somehow I didn’t have the energy to hunt for a job. I understand why now, it just didn’t fit in the plan, the plan I didn’t know about at that moment, but I know it now. But anyway, I just checked my mail, and guess what. A company likes my CV and wants me to contact them. The company is in Copenhagen, and the job, well it is a job I certainly would have liked to have. But hey I am on my way to London, so it is just a bit too late. Typical.

Apart from that, I love Inspector Lynley. I find Nathaniel Parker quite charming, and hey, he is British. So I was happy when danish tv broadcasted some of the episodes in the fall, 45 minutes of Lynley per week. Me like – a lot. But now it seems like someone has told them that, because they are going completely crazy. They are really trying to change my mind. Yesterday 3,5 hour of Lynley. And if that wasn’t enough to convince me – today they are broadcasting Lynley’s episode Wellschooled Murder, which has, yes indeed, Bill in it. Bill is a rare sight on Danish tv, so this can’t be a coincidence. Tomorrow 1,5 hour of Lynley again. Who told them ?

But I am determined.

The Life Chocolatic – revisited

After The Life Chocolatic I wrote to the girls of Inky Circus for an explanation. Inky Circus is a very cool weblog if you are interested in science.

They actually passed the question on to their physics buff Alom and here is what he had to say about my the Life Chocolatic incident:

This is something that I have tried to do on purpose, believe it or not. The phenomenom is known as “superheating” and it’s quite spectacular to witness. Basically, due to the way a microwave oven heats things up, the liquid is warmed up beyond it’s boiling point, without the bubbling that we aassociate with boiling. Bubbles do not form in the superheated liquid, so high temperature vapour / gas is not carried away as it normally would be. This is an unstable state. As soon as you put an object into such a liquid (like a teaspoon), you make bubbles – lots of them very quickly, they explode out of the liquid and take lots of liquid with them. The same thing can happen if you put sugar in or sometimes even if you just knock the container.

Now this is an answer that even I understand. It certainly is quite spectacular to watch, and it is also quite spectacular how much you have to clean up afterwards. But it is interesting ! Cooking without bubbling, and I didn’t even do it on purpose.

A thank you to Alom and Inky Circus for the answer.

WordPress 2.0 rant

Ok, Bill wanted to be top of the, well, Bill, and his wish is my command so I moved him over to WordPress 2.0, and gave him a new suit. I like men in dark suits. And even more, I like Bill in a dark suit.

Forget about this post – read this instead: WordPress 2.0 Praise

I have been a big fan of WordPress, because I always found it clean and simple. And it’s incredible that you can get this system for free, I am thankful. But WordPress 2.0 has given me too much of a headache already.

But first – useful Things I like:
Upgrading was as easy as 1,2,3
The theme switcher is cool
The Backup your database thingy is nice too.

Not useful Things, but I like them anyway:
I like that the admin section now is blue. (not that it is useful for anything)
I like that WordPress admin now says “Howdy, Ingrid”

Things I don’t like – at all:
The annoying amount of information on the dashboard (it’s still there). I don’t want any feeds there, I only want things there that have to do with my weblog. I read my feeds elsewhere, if I find them interesting that is. (So yes I installed the wp-admin light hack to get rid of it, but it just should not be there, or there should be an option to shut it off !)

I am maybe old fashioned, but I upload my images with FTP. So I don’t want the new upload feature taking up all this space in my post screen, I want an option to shut it off. Just like I can shut off the new WYSIWYG editor (’cause who really wants that, not me).

Well I know that Ajax is the new buzzword, and it is probably smart when used well, but how I hate all those Ajax boxes on the left right of my post screen ! And worse if I minimize them, the next time I enter the post screen they are back !

So what I actually want is an option in WP 2.0 so I can choose the oldstyle WP 1.5 editor in stead of the new one.

The new post preview – I am sorry – I don’t like that either. It doesn’t look nice at all for my template. I want to be able to select the old post preview (as in having an option to shut the new post preview off) and I hate the scrollbars around the post preview.

So if I should sum it up – I should not have upgraded at all, cause it is far more annoying me than actually making me happy.

And why should you at all be interested in knowing all this ? I have no idea, but I feel a bit better now, having it out of my system.

Oh yeah, one last thing that hasn’t anything to do with WordPress – what have I don e wrong Google ? This domain name still can’t be found in Google! I thought Google was my friend.

And I said

I wished him a happy new year, my boss. And told him that one of my new years resolutions was, unfortunately (not for me, but I didn’t say that), to quit my job. And so I did.
And he said, wow, and that it was unexpected. But that he could understand me.

So where was I going to work then, where was my new job going to be, he asked.
I have no idea, I told him, I only know that it’s not going to be in Aarhus, and not in Denmark either. That I was selling my flat and that I would move to another city in another country.

And he asked – where are you going ?

And I said : hey babe, I take a walk on the wildside …

Dear diary

Dear Diary

It’s weird, having a complete blank (paper) diary in front of me. Symbolic too. The old one has followed me through last year (it has even been in London with me, laying beside me when taking THE decision), like a true and faithful friend. Always willing to listen, and never judging. That’s how a friend should be. And how strange to suddenly leave it in a drawer, because there isn’t space for more words. The new one has another colour which I have to get used to a bit, but the same friendly face on the cover. How to start on this blank page eagerly waiting to be written on.

But suddenly I knew:

And so I made a major decision.
I had to make sure that next year…
I wouldn’t end up shit-faced and listening to sad FM…
easy-listening for the over-thirties.
I decided to take control of my life…
and start a diary…
to tell the truth about me…
the whole truth.
Resolution number one– ohh–
obviously will lose twenty pounds.
Number two…
always put last night’s panties in the laundrybasket.
Equally important…
will find nice sensible boyfriend to go out with…
and not continue to form romantic attachments…
to any of the following…
alcoholics, workaholics, commitment-phobics…
peeping toms,megalomaniacs…
emotional fuckwits, or perverts.
And especially will not fantasize…
about a particular person who embodies all these things…

I couldn’t have said it better myself, thanks B. . 2006 – has now officially started. I should be asleep at this hour, but I am so very awake. About 7 hours from now I’m handing in my resignation.

Happy New Year !

Happy Newyear

new things
new places
new dreams
new faces
new sounds
new scents
new plans
new friends ?
new plays
new moves
new films
new grooves
new good
new bad
new happy
new sad
new games
new rules
new lovers
new fools
new joy
new tears
new courage
new fears
new songs
new dances
New Year
new chances !

I wish all of you, and when I say all, I mean ALL, the very best for 2006. Thank you for walking along on this weblog, and for commenting and sending mails, it makes it so much more fun to write.
And 2006 ? Well keep dreaming, and more important, keep chasing those dreams. I know I will. It will make it all worthwhile, and good things will happen. Be happy. Your life is now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Years Eve in Denmark

Oliebollen

My first New Years Eve in Denmark (after 9 years), and the last one too I dare say. And yes I miss the oliebollen (raisin-filled dough balls traditionally eaten around the New Year celebrations by the Dutch), a lot, and not the least the appelflappen which are my personal favourites. And I miss Youp on tv, but who cares if you can watch Yak in stead.

Apart from that I invited 2 men over, I was a bit worried that they wouldn’t be here before New Years Eve, but they made it. Colonel Osbourne arrived yesterday, he was delayed a bit, with all the snow in Denmark he had some trouble getting here. But he is here now, and he is just as charming as I’d expected, very good company indeed. And very well dressed too. A witty man with style, I knew he was right, and so did he. And I invited the Earl of Clincham, he arrived this morning, even more delayed, but better late than never I told him. He is very charming too, and he is a young visiter, even though not that young in age. I’m sure we are going to have an entertaining evening the three of us.

The other good thing of being at home, and living on the 3rd floor is the fantastic view at the fireworks lit in the city of Århus right from my window. My camera is waiting already.

I hope you all have a nice evening, and be careful with fireworks !

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (7/10)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

I found The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a bit boring. Maybe you should not compare the film to the Harry Potter movies, but if you do, Harry Potter is a lot more interesting to watch. Probably because the Narna story is a bit slow. And the sound was very bad in this dutch cinema, the screen a bit small and a break in the middle of a film (it’s 2h 20 long) is never good if you ask me. (And yes I am spoiled by Cinemaxx) And no, I haven’t read the book.

Good things:
Narnia features James McAvoy as Mr. Tumnus, the Faun. Well he does have weird legs in Narnia, but he is one of the most talented young British actors currently around, if you ask me. Yes he was in State Of Play, together with this other Brit, what’s his name, something with a B it was …

Narnia features Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan, the Lion. Well casted, Lion with an Irish accent. We like that.

Narnia does have some nice special effects, talking beavers (pretty funny) and wolves, Aslan the lion, and all the other not so common inhabitants of the land of Narnia.

All in all the story is quite allright, but the pace of the film was too slow. So no more than 7 (out of 10).

The Life Chocolatic

After The Life Aquatic experiment, I took it a bit further today. And I still don’t quite understand how it happened.

I filled a cup (a thick glass Bodum one) with cold chocolate milk (there is a snowstorm coming, so better be prepared).
I put it in the microwave to warm it up, for about 2 minutes.
I took it out, and gave it 30 seconds more on full microwave speed.
I took it out again, the cup was quite warm, also on the outside.
I placed the cup on my kitchen table.
I put in a teaspoon.

Now as soon as the teaspoon landed in the hot chocolate, it began to boil over ! Resulting in the cup nearly being emptied on kitchen table (the cup still standing!), hot chocolate milk flooding down my kitchen drawers, ending in a chocolate pool on the floor, of which Willy Wonka would have been proud. And of course there was chocolate milk in all my drawers too, on plates, in bowls, in my toaster, you name it. If I do something, I do it a 100%.

The thing is that I don’t quite understand how this could happen, from a physics* point of view.

(* Physics : The science of matter and energy and of interactions between the two, grouped in traditional fields such as acoustics, optics, mechanics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism, as well as in modern extensions including atomic and nuclear physics, cryogenics, solid-state physics, particle physics, and plasma physics.)

But maybe some of you do ?

Whatever caused it – don’t try this at home kids.

A year in 25 words – the mayfly project

Can you sum up your 2005 in just twenty-four words?

I could, and this might be a temp solution for my out of diary space problem.

(Here are mine in slightly modified version – 24 words which sum up my 2005:
Greenland. The Girl In The Cafe. Bill. Awakened. Decision. Lost. Found. Heart. London. Kevin. Move. Dreams. Dare. Hope. And met some really good people. )

It is actually quite inspiring to read what people wrote. And it could be fun to sum up plans for 2006 the same way.

Inspiration for this came from the best brief biography they had ever heard, the one of a Mayfly (Ephemeroptera), which lives for just twenty-four hours:
“Born. Eat. Shag. Die.”

What a life.

XMAS the afterparty

All the things I left behind so I could take care of them “after christmas”, well they were welcoming me home today. Next year we try another approach. I’ll book the nissar (what?).

I would rather have been welcomed by the stack of DVD’s I ordered “before christmas” and the enormous pile of missing christmas cards. But none of that had arrived. Yet. (hopefully) The DVD’s better be there before New Year, otherwise it is going to be a pretty boring weekend.

The biggest shocker was probably to see that the number of days, which before Xmas was safely above 70, suddenly had fallen down to 67. How did that happen ? That is only about 1608 hours ! And if I am supposed to catch some sleep too, if at all possible, there are only 1072 hours left. That sounds pretty scary. Even to me.

The barbie-doll-lookalike-incheck-desk-women on Schiphol (where?) were all in a very bad mood today. I know that, because there was something wrong with my ticket, and they were forced to do a little bit extra work to get that problem solved. That little extra work required them to use their head (which they either didn’t have or had left at home), and you should have heard them. They tried to make me feel like I should be forever grateful that I was allowed to fly home, at all. They didn’t succeed.

It’s the 27th and my diary for 2005 (the uncensored full length paper version) is completely full. What to do about that ? 4 days in the 2006 one ? Glueing 4 extra pages in the old one ? Not doing anything worthwhile writing about for 4 days ? I could call Mark Darcy (who?) – so he could buy me a new one ?

The tower was beautiful again, and there was snow both in Amsterdam, and in Århus.

What a crap piece of writing. But it was either this, or a pathetic poem. I decided to save the poem for later.

Did you have a nice christmas ?

I play airguitar in a band

I play airguitar in a band

Ok the plan was this :
The Real Estate people now have a key to my flat. Which means that soon they will invade it, with potential buyers. At least that is the plan. Since my flat is in a permanent status of CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrom) – and looks like a place having survived a nearby bombexplosion – I need to cleanup. Again. Also because the photographer is coming soon, and I wouldn’t want to have warzone like pictures on the internet. Not good for potential buyers attraction.

And so I need to do something about that. And that something should be this evening. I started early and while cleaning up, I would rip some of my music cd’s to MP3’s so I can get rid of some of my old cd’s too. Ofcourse this went wrong already after the first cd. I was transferred back to the 80’s, in an improbable way, immediately. And just to give you an idea I suddenly heard:

Extreme – Hole Hearted (much better than More Than Words – do not play this song – singalong risk : High – Have to dance risk : High)
Little Angels – Womankind (Singalong risk : High)
Living Colour – Love Rears it’s Ugly Head (Airguitar risk : Extreme – Singalong risk: Extreme – Have to dance : Extreme)
Ozzy Osbourne – No More Tears (Headbangdanger – High ! Ozzy actually made one cool song)
Matt Bianco – Whose Side Are You On (most of the cd has an Airpiano Risk : Extremely High – Singalong risk : Extreme – Have to dance risk : Extremely High)

And those were only the first three cd’s, there are tons of cd’s left to rip.

A lot of boogie is going on here at the moment, but it has nothing to do with cleaning. So here is another lesson for all you wannabe cleaners out there (and it’s not even from your uncle Billy) :
Do not play cd’s you haven’t heard for years when you are supposed to be cleaning up.

I truly believe I will be an expert eventually.

E-mailowac – the sequel

Ingrid to Robert: – 6:34 pm (55 minutes ago)

Ja hup in een logje, da’s een mooie.

Mijn opa is 91 en internet (mail en skype ook) nog (cool he), en mijn
oma is ook nog redelijk fit. Da’s dan een van de goeie dingen van zo’n
familie bezoek, dat ik hen ook weer even zie. Als mensen ouder worden
weet je nooit wanneer het de laatste keer is.

Nou – ik wacht op het logje !

(en zie hier)

The Office

The Office guys

5 things about the Office:

  • It’s the (re) discovery of Martin Freeman (Tim). I suddenly understand why girls find him cute, because he really is cute in the Office. And after having seen him here, both Love Actually (a christmas neccesity) and Hitchhikers Guide are a lot more fun to watch !
  • The office in The Office looks scaringly much like the office I have been working in, in Birmingham, in a company called The Birmingham Waste Co. Ltd. They might as well have filmed it there, because apart from the David Brent type, all other types were present, a blond secretary called Dawn (!), same style of office, same atmosphere. And they were in the paper industry too, not buying paper like in The Office, but buying and selling waste paper, which is probably worse. Both the Office and The Birmingham Office are not the type of places I want to work in London. Well The Office maybe, but I would probably die laughing.
  • I want some of David Brents unrockable confidence
  • It’s more cringing than Extras if you ask me
  • I haven’t laughed this much about television since – i don’t even remember since when.

More the Office:
The Office quotes
David Brent quotes

Those of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do.
David Brent

Point of no return

Right in the Eye
Look into my Eye

Today I signed some very important papers. They are going to sell my flat. “They” are expensive real estate people, and I know I can save some money selling it myself. But I think I have enough things bouncing around in my mind already, so let them handle it. And if they sell it for the price they have given me, I am one lucky potatoe, and they deserve the salary I have to pay them.

So here we go again – full speed ahead into an exiting time, where the question “Will they be able to sell it in 74 days” will pop up regulary. I have decided not to worry about it the next few weeks. Not yet. No use.

There isn’t really a way back now, there is only one direction and that is London. And even though there still is a very long list of things to take care of, I am so looking forward to this adventure. There is no doubt whatsoever left in my mind. I am going to do this.

All this moving is, apart from being a lot of hassle everytime, also bad for my christmascards. I have only received 2 until now, and I am afraid that others are arriving at wrong addresses. But hey, you can’t have it all.