Parijs Exil, Postsecret, cooking and notebooks! My it's been a busy week :)
[mood | 
*bzzzt* ]
Hello Livejournal, yes I still exist :)
It's been a busy week. Rehearsals for Parijs Exil have started anew and I have, oh, five or six rehearsals to get into the part (and that includes learning the music and the choreographies). It's absolutely frightening to have such a short time, especially since the guy who is playing my character's boyfriend in the play can only be there half the time during rehearsals. I'm not concerned. Who me? Pfaw. *hides*
I also bought a notebook recently and am getting used to working on it. Within two days I had to turn it in at the store because there was some sort of technical problem with it (not my fault, it just short-circuited and wouldn't switch on anymore). The worst thing was that Red spent a couple of hours installing the whole thing and then it went "+++please reboot universe from start+++" and no FTB or BRL could get it back to functioning properly again. I'm sorry Red :(
So, got a second new laptop and then, after having it for a short week (just last night in fact), I managed to tip a glass of red wine all over the keyboard. I've cleaned it all up and dabbed everywhere with kitchen towels but just to be sure I've taken out the battery and I'll let it dry out for another day or two. Perhaps I am just not meant to have a portable computer (other than, of course, a GA). Perhaps I should have named it earlier. Red wine is really not the choice product for baptising ones notebook. Argh!
This also means that I cannot work on my thesis or translation work this weekend :(
Good thing there's better news as well (and a question). First of all, I bought a cast iron pot last week. And very cheaply too because I paid €29,95 for two of them because of a mistake made by one of the supermarket clerks. There was an advertisment saying "Cast iron pot, now €29,95 1 + 1 free!" Apparently it should have been that price for each pot and I was lucky for noticing the mistake! This warmed my thrifty living-on-a-student-budget little heart :) Anyway, I have a cast iron pot now but no recipes for something to cook in it. Is there anyone out there who could point me towards a good wintery/comfort food dish that won't hurt my budget too much? Doesn't have to be vegetarian but if it is that would make me even happier!
And a last little tidbit of news for all Dutch fans of the Postsecret community art project. A similar project has been started off in the Netherlands where people can send in postcards that tell their secrets. One alteration from the original project is that for the Dutch project one can also write a little story (maximal number of words: 300) and send that in. Once a week (on Friday I think) a postcard is published in that new daily paper the NRC Next. The rest of the cards and stories can be seen on: www.briefgeheimen.nl
I'm really curious to see how this works out in the Netherlands! I find Postsecret a most fascinating art project because it raises so many questions. Some of the secrets unveiled are quite moving, while others really make me wonder whether they are true or not. I think it can be liberating to send in a big secret but at the same time it can really affect those who read the secrets. Many a time I have wondered about the thruthfulness of the cards on Postsecret and at times they seem ridiculously exaggerated. At the same time though, there are secrets that scare me. Secrets that broach very serious subjects like committed crimes, abuse, people who have been imprisoned wrongfully. Scary.
The best thing about Postsecret and it's Dutch equivalent though, is that it can be so very inspirational. The cards tell little stories that make you think about the persons behind the cards and the lives they lead. The anonymity of the project makes it much more interesting than something like Big Brother because it feeds your imagination.
All in all I am curious to see whether or not this project will work in the Netherlands. I think the Dutch are, as a rule, a bit more unflappable. We like to keep things to ourselves, to hide our feelings. The paradox amazes me sometimes. We have these huge windows so that everyone can peek into our lives (and yes, we are very curious about everything, there's a reason we came up with Big Brother) but we tend to keep our emotions firmly locked in a hidden place. As I see it, this community art project can go two ways. Either it becomes a success because it's a fairly anonymous way of sharing your big secrets or it flops hugely because we are still a bit paranoid about sharing our secrets (even by means of a decorated postcard). I hope it'll be the first one! I'd like to see this catching on because, like fellow Dutchmen and -women, I am curious enough to learn more about the secrets the people in this country have :) We'll see how it turns out!
That's it for now, I'm going to put the kettle on and study a bit.
Love,
Nine
*bzzzt* ]
Hello Livejournal, yes I still exist :)
It's been a busy week. Rehearsals for Parijs Exil have started anew and I have, oh, five or six rehearsals to get into the part (and that includes learning the music and the choreographies). It's absolutely frightening to have such a short time, especially since the guy who is playing my character's boyfriend in the play can only be there half the time during rehearsals. I'm not concerned. Who me? Pfaw. *hides*
I also bought a notebook recently and am getting used to working on it. Within two days I had to turn it in at the store because there was some sort of technical problem with it (not my fault, it just short-circuited and wouldn't switch on anymore). The worst thing was that Red spent a couple of hours installing the whole thing and then it went "+++please reboot universe from start+++" and no FTB or BRL could get it back to functioning properly again. I'm sorry Red :(
So, got a second new laptop and then, after having it for a short week (just last night in fact), I managed to tip a glass of red wine all over the keyboard. I've cleaned it all up and dabbed everywhere with kitchen towels but just to be sure I've taken out the battery and I'll let it dry out for another day or two. Perhaps I am just not meant to have a portable computer (other than, of course, a GA). Perhaps I should have named it earlier. Red wine is really not the choice product for baptising ones notebook. Argh!
This also means that I cannot work on my thesis or translation work this weekend :(
Good thing there's better news as well (and a question). First of all, I bought a cast iron pot last week. And very cheaply too because I paid €29,95 for two of them because of a mistake made by one of the supermarket clerks. There was an advertisment saying "Cast iron pot, now €29,95 1 + 1 free!" Apparently it should have been that price for each pot and I was lucky for noticing the mistake! This warmed my thrifty living-on-a-student-budget little heart :) Anyway, I have a cast iron pot now but no recipes for something to cook in it. Is there anyone out there who could point me towards a good wintery/comfort food dish that won't hurt my budget too much? Doesn't have to be vegetarian but if it is that would make me even happier!
And a last little tidbit of news for all Dutch fans of the Postsecret community art project. A similar project has been started off in the Netherlands where people can send in postcards that tell their secrets. One alteration from the original project is that for the Dutch project one can also write a little story (maximal number of words: 300) and send that in. Once a week (on Friday I think) a postcard is published in that new daily paper the NRC Next. The rest of the cards and stories can be seen on: www.briefgeheimen.nl
I'm really curious to see how this works out in the Netherlands! I find Postsecret a most fascinating art project because it raises so many questions. Some of the secrets unveiled are quite moving, while others really make me wonder whether they are true or not. I think it can be liberating to send in a big secret but at the same time it can really affect those who read the secrets. Many a time I have wondered about the thruthfulness of the cards on Postsecret and at times they seem ridiculously exaggerated. At the same time though, there are secrets that scare me. Secrets that broach very serious subjects like committed crimes, abuse, people who have been imprisoned wrongfully. Scary.
The best thing about Postsecret and it's Dutch equivalent though, is that it can be so very inspirational. The cards tell little stories that make you think about the persons behind the cards and the lives they lead. The anonymity of the project makes it much more interesting than something like Big Brother because it feeds your imagination.
All in all I am curious to see whether or not this project will work in the Netherlands. I think the Dutch are, as a rule, a bit more unflappable. We like to keep things to ourselves, to hide our feelings. The paradox amazes me sometimes. We have these huge windows so that everyone can peek into our lives (and yes, we are very curious about everything, there's a reason we came up with Big Brother) but we tend to keep our emotions firmly locked in a hidden place. As I see it, this community art project can go two ways. Either it becomes a success because it's a fairly anonymous way of sharing your big secrets or it flops hugely because we are still a bit paranoid about sharing our secrets (even by means of a decorated postcard). I hope it'll be the first one! I'd like to see this catching on because, like fellow Dutchmen and -women, I am curious enough to learn more about the secrets the people in this country have :) We'll see how it turns out!
That's it for now, I'm going to put the kettle on and study a bit.
Love,
Nine