I would like to point out a cute web comic that I read every day. It's cute and funny and worth your time if you haven't quite let go of your inner child:
http://www.countyoursheep.com/
Here are some of my favourite episodes:
http://www.countyoursheep.com/d/20030704.html
http://www.countyoursheep.com/d/20031003.html
http://www.countyoursheep.com/d/20040204.html
http://www.countyoursheep.com/d/20040913.html
http://www.countyoursheep.com/d/20040923.html
http://www.countyoursheep.com/d/20041215.html
http://www.countyoursheep.com/d/20060222.html
And my absolute favourite of all time:
http://www.countyoursheep.com/d/20050302.html
31 October 2006
24 October 2006
Chocolate
I'm a woman. I can't help it. Once a month I just have this incredible need. I can't explain it, I can't tell you why, but I just need chocolate. Badly.
M&Ms are not good enough. BonBonBloc is a bit too much. Bars like Kitkat, Mars or Twix simply don't contain enough cacao and too much other stuff. Better buy me a good, old-fashioned chocolate bar from the supermarket. Or two. Chocolate icecream is also goooooood.
Only a few days per month, chocolate is my most important food group.
M&Ms are not good enough. BonBonBloc is a bit too much. Bars like Kitkat, Mars or Twix simply don't contain enough cacao and too much other stuff. Better buy me a good, old-fashioned chocolate bar from the supermarket. Or two. Chocolate icecream is also goooooood.
Only a few days per month, chocolate is my most important food group.
21 September 2006
20 July 2006
Writer's block
It's silly. A writer's block is an extremely silly situation. The added fact that I'm only 24 and I've already dealed with quite a few writer's blocks is even more silly.
Wikipedia says: Writer's block is the phenomenon in which a writer temporarily loses the capability to continue writing. It is characterized by the loss of inspiration or confidence in creativity. For me, it constitutes the inability to make my story go on, because my characters are mixed up with either each other or the plot. Told you it was silly.
I know what you're thinking; I'm the writer, I decide what happens to the characters and the plot. Unfortunately that's only true up to a certain point. I'll try to explain. For the story and the characters to be believable and to make sense, I can't just do anything I want. If the hero of my story hides from his enemies, this immediately has consequences. His hiding says something about him. It could mean that he knows that they're stronger than him, and he's biding his time to take them out later one by one. It could also mean he's afraid of them. If my hero is neither a coward, nor smart or patient enough to bide his time, he shouldn't be hiding. This was just an example.
Right now, I'm wrestling with my main hero again, Jareth. Ever since Remmelt pointed out to me that he was behaving like a sissy (very logical, since he behaved a bit like me), I tried to rewrite him to make him more manly and powerful. I'm rather happy with the result, I even managed to give him motives that drive him forward (he wants revenge for the terrible accident that happened to his best friend) and with a little tweaking I also made him a powerful and fearsome mage.
My next problem is predictable and a real "D'oh!", to speak with Homer Simpson. The next logical thing Jareth would do is find the person responsible for his friend's accident and make him or her pay. The problem is that this person is of course a vital character for the story; it would kill the plot if Jareth got rid of her. Luckily Jareth is not overly smart, so I might be able to find a way around this problem. It's still silly, though.
Luckily, my roleplay friends are very helpful when I find myself unable to find a solution to my character's problems. When I ask them what they would do if they were a powerful mage looking for revenge, I get all kinds of inspiring answers. It leads to very long and animated conversations.
I love being a writer, despite the silly problems it generates.
Wikipedia says: Writer's block is the phenomenon in which a writer temporarily loses the capability to continue writing. It is characterized by the loss of inspiration or confidence in creativity. For me, it constitutes the inability to make my story go on, because my characters are mixed up with either each other or the plot. Told you it was silly.
I know what you're thinking; I'm the writer, I decide what happens to the characters and the plot. Unfortunately that's only true up to a certain point. I'll try to explain. For the story and the characters to be believable and to make sense, I can't just do anything I want. If the hero of my story hides from his enemies, this immediately has consequences. His hiding says something about him. It could mean that he knows that they're stronger than him, and he's biding his time to take them out later one by one. It could also mean he's afraid of them. If my hero is neither a coward, nor smart or patient enough to bide his time, he shouldn't be hiding. This was just an example.
Right now, I'm wrestling with my main hero again, Jareth. Ever since Remmelt pointed out to me that he was behaving like a sissy (very logical, since he behaved a bit like me), I tried to rewrite him to make him more manly and powerful. I'm rather happy with the result, I even managed to give him motives that drive him forward (he wants revenge for the terrible accident that happened to his best friend) and with a little tweaking I also made him a powerful and fearsome mage.
My next problem is predictable and a real "D'oh!", to speak with Homer Simpson. The next logical thing Jareth would do is find the person responsible for his friend's accident and make him or her pay. The problem is that this person is of course a vital character for the story; it would kill the plot if Jareth got rid of her. Luckily Jareth is not overly smart, so I might be able to find a way around this problem. It's still silly, though.
Luckily, my roleplay friends are very helpful when I find myself unable to find a solution to my character's problems. When I ask them what they would do if they were a powerful mage looking for revenge, I get all kinds of inspiring answers. It leads to very long and animated conversations.
I love being a writer, despite the silly problems it generates.
30 June 2006
Babies' names
A friend of mine is pregnant (I'm not saying who, because I'm not she wants everyone to know yet) and it stirred up a conversation about names. While surfing, I came across this site about what kind of silly names american parents make up for their kids, check it out, if you like: http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html
My family is profoundly christian; which is why all my nephews and nieces have names from the bible. My one cousin has three kids, who she named Daniel, Ruben and Deborah, which is not so bad. But my other cousin went a bit over the top: his sons are called Boaz and Levi. Who wants to name their kid Levi these days? Hello? Have you heard of the jeans?
Some of my best friends have unusual names; Amras, Kazimir. I find them very fitting and nice, but it's true that a strange name can make a person unhappy (my mom is a nice example: Ike-Hindrikje. She likes people to call her Ineke). It takes some time getting used to it.
Luckily, I am not ready to have kids yet, and I can still think on it for a while.
My family is profoundly christian; which is why all my nephews and nieces have names from the bible. My one cousin has three kids, who she named Daniel, Ruben and Deborah, which is not so bad. But my other cousin went a bit over the top: his sons are called Boaz and Levi. Who wants to name their kid Levi these days? Hello? Have you heard of the jeans?
Some of my best friends have unusual names; Amras, Kazimir. I find them very fitting and nice, but it's true that a strange name can make a person unhappy (my mom is a nice example: Ike-Hindrikje. She likes people to call her Ineke). It takes some time getting used to it.
Luckily, I am not ready to have kids yet, and I can still think on it for a while.
13 June 2006
Mum proud
(yes, the title of this post is an inside joke for people who play Hackmaster)
I have always felt I could never do anything right in the eyes of my mum. She wanted to teach me knitting, embroidering and sewing. She wanted me to do girlie stuff, and I indulged her by spending some time horse riding and I even did some ballet.
At the age of 10, my mind of my own kicked in though, and I wanted to play computer games and read fantasy. She tried to chase me out of my room; she wanted me to go play outside. None of her schemes ever worked; I got rid of my barbies and demanded my own pc. I spent warm summer afternoons playing Final Fantasy while she would have liked to see me play hide and seek in the park.
Ever since I started roleplaying when I was 16, she nagged at me. The roleplayers I hung out with were the wrong crowd, according to her. ("What do you see in those guys?") And she still wanted me to go outside and hang with neighbourhood friends or do sports. ("I don't want you to become as pale and puffy as they are.") Sorry mum, I never listened.
When I was above 18, she gave up. She still talks about her own knitting and sewing, about how nice the weather is, but she knows it doesn't interest me. She doesn't ask about roleplay, or about all the nerdy guys I know. She sometimes comments on how pale and puffy I've become and that some exercise would do me good, but she knows it's not her business anymore.
But recently, something changed. I started live roleplay, which she still thinks is weird, of course. But it has some very interesting side effects. I have taken an interest in sewing, especially costumes for my characters. I sometimes spend a whole weekend outside, with plenty of exercise (running and hiding from all the people who want to whack me). With a triumphant smile, my mum agreed to help sew a costume when I asked her today. She is looking forward to it and has all kinds of ideas about what we're going to make.
Maybe my mum's proud of what I've become after all...
I have always felt I could never do anything right in the eyes of my mum. She wanted to teach me knitting, embroidering and sewing. She wanted me to do girlie stuff, and I indulged her by spending some time horse riding and I even did some ballet.
At the age of 10, my mind of my own kicked in though, and I wanted to play computer games and read fantasy. She tried to chase me out of my room; she wanted me to go play outside. None of her schemes ever worked; I got rid of my barbies and demanded my own pc. I spent warm summer afternoons playing Final Fantasy while she would have liked to see me play hide and seek in the park.
Ever since I started roleplaying when I was 16, she nagged at me. The roleplayers I hung out with were the wrong crowd, according to her. ("What do you see in those guys?") And she still wanted me to go outside and hang with neighbourhood friends or do sports. ("I don't want you to become as pale and puffy as they are.") Sorry mum, I never listened.
When I was above 18, she gave up. She still talks about her own knitting and sewing, about how nice the weather is, but she knows it doesn't interest me. She doesn't ask about roleplay, or about all the nerdy guys I know. She sometimes comments on how pale and puffy I've become and that some exercise would do me good, but she knows it's not her business anymore.
But recently, something changed. I started live roleplay, which she still thinks is weird, of course. But it has some very interesting side effects. I have taken an interest in sewing, especially costumes for my characters. I sometimes spend a whole weekend outside, with plenty of exercise (running and hiding from all the people who want to whack me). With a triumphant smile, my mum agreed to help sew a costume when I asked her today. She is looking forward to it and has all kinds of ideas about what we're going to make.
Maybe my mum's proud of what I've become after all...
24 March 2006
English
Right, this is an issue. Why would I write this blog in English? I know some of my friends might wonder. The same reason why I write my novel in English. Though I speak several languages and I live in the Netherlands, English is still the language of my toughts, and I guess it always will be. So, to save the trouble of having to translate my thoughts, I'll just let you do the translating for yourself.
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