Louise's Livejournal

Van Woodstock tot Baas in Eigen Buik

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:40:18 GMT

Het is alweer even geleden dat ik een blog heb geschreven en deze keer doe ik het in het Nederlands. Ik moet bekennen dat ik gewoon geen zin heb om het Engels te schrijven, dus vandaar. Op het moment gebeurt er niet veel in mijn leventje en daar kan ik me soms druk om maken. Soms denk ik of ik alleen adem voor school, vooral met deze achterstanden. Gelukkig neem ik ook de tijd om lekker aan niets te denken door muziek te luisteren of een film te kijken. Dat brengt mij trouwens op iets leuks. Mijn muzieksmaak is heel breed maar één van de soorten muziek die ik geweldig vind, is de muziek uit de jaren 60 en 70. Muziek wat nu niet meer gemaakt wordt, geniale muziek (oké Rammstein is ook geniaal!). Zo luister ik de live versie van Simon & Garfunkel van the Sound of Silence tijdens het 25th anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert (2009). Kippenvel over heel mijn lichaam en tranen in mijn ogen als ik deze twee geniale muzikanten hoor zingen. Ook nu weer terwijl ik deze blog schrijf. Dat zet me aan het denken hoe graag ik in die tijd wil leven, maar helaas het is de verleden tijd. Ik zou zeker een persoon zijn die festivals zoals Woodstock bezocht zou hebben, mee deed aan protesten tegen door oorlog in Vietnam en met de woorden 'Baas in eigen buik' op mijn buik rondliep om te strijden voor gelijke rechten van de vrouw! Misschien is het daarom wel dat ik zoveel passie heb voor geschiedenis. Alles uit het verleden is interessant en wat ik nu in het heden bevalt me niet altijd even goed. Hoe de maatschappij in elkaar zit wordt je soms ook sip van. Tja, mijn moeder zegt dan ook wel dat ik in de verkeerde tijd ben geboren en ik eigenlijk iemand ben die thuis hoort in de jaren zestig en zeventig. Zou het niet gaaf zijn als er een tijdmachine bestond die je daarheen kon brengen? Oké genoeg gefantaseerd. Ik moet het maar doen met de platen en m'n platenspeler die mij iets terug brengen naar de tijd, de filmpjes in youtube kijken en maar gewoon geschiedenis studeren. En om jullie even in dezelfde stemming te krijgen, hier een clipje. Enjoy en onthoud 'Make Love, Not War'!

(Dit is trouwens niet het concert waar ik het over had)

Louise van Gend photography

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:05:06 GMT

Photography, one of the things I really enjoy doing in my free time. Few months ago I made a website for photos I'd like to show to other people. I neglected my website for a couple of months, because of some personal matters. Yesterday I decided to change the layout completely and updated all my photos I made. Today it is online again and hopefully it will get a lot of visitors!
Click on the picture to watch my 'Louise van Gend photography' website. Don't hesitate to leave a message (here or on the website), with your opinion of the website and photography.
Enjoy!

P.S. I am sorry I haven't much else to say. Soon I will write another entry with things I would like to tell.

Lack of Inspiration?

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:50:01 GMT

I have been struggling with writing my paper for a few days now. The subjects I have to write about are War Poetry and Literature in the Elizabethan Age. Both are very interesting subjects to me. War Poets is about the Great War and the second subject is mainly about William Shakespeare. Lack of Inspiration? Obviously, because I know a lot about both subjects and somehow I only manage to stare at my computer screen in stead of actually writing something. Wonderful...Especially when you hear classmates saying they have like 20-30 pages or even more. Panicing..

Ahh-choo!

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:56:32 GMT

I did not know that a person could feel so miserable because of a stupid cold. I can't stop sneezing and it's hard to breathe. So I stay in bed for today, eating soup and try to get some rest. Is there someone or a higher force, who doesn't want me to graduate this year? Seriously, since november 2009 I am constantly sick: first the flu and if that was not enough, I did get the swine flu for two weeks. Beside of all this, I gotmononucleosis (Pfeiffer's disease or kissing disease) two weeks later... Here are we now, in 2010 and still having mono (and a cold). Frustrated? No, why would I be?

Okay. Done with the negative, sickness-part of this journal. I am moving on! Maybe you have noticed, or maybe not? I made a new layout. It's not completely new and mine, because I used the base of another layout (made by gloriousbite ). The header is, however, made by me. 'Animals are my friends, and I don't eat my friends', it's good eh? It's a quote by the Irish literary critic George Bernard Shaw. The quote suites me because I am a vegetarian. George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, literary critic and a socialist. Shaw won the Nobel price for Literature in 1925. I chose this quote, because vegetarianism is a huge part of my life. Last two months, I did something I deeply regret: eating fish. In my opinion you are a vegetarian when you do not eat meat or fish. A lot of people forget fish is an animal as well. So I hear people make that mistake really often (especially on cooking programmes). Actually, there is a name for someone who only eats fish, it's called a pescotarian. Please, remember the differences between a vegetarian and pescotarian from now one :). I leave the fish in peace from now on. To me it was a big mistake to eat fish but I was sort of desperate, because of my weak immune system lately.
Did you know that vegetarians are really eco-friendly? The best way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide, is to become a vegetarian. Even eating something else in stead of meat twice a week will make a huge difference. Just think about it and remember: a vegetarian driving a Hummer is more environmental friendly than a carnivore riding a bike!

Icons

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:44:02 GMT

Hey! I made some icons!. It's been a long time since I have made any icons so I have start over figuring out how it all works. I used some tutorials of icon_tutorial (don't know which ones) but just did some basic things first.

Rammstein (Till) [8]
Led Zeppelin (Robert) [2]
Twilight (Bella) [2]
Miscellaneous [5]

Preview:

Feel free to use the icons, but credit me: koezegtboe </span>
Textures I used for the Robert Plant Icons: icy1486 and glimmerless
Cheers!

I love E-bay!

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:25:24 GMT

Last week I was looking on a Dutch website where you can buy second hand items (marktplaats.nl) like mobile phones, clothes and every other stuff you can imagine, but there wasn't much I was interested in. Then I found Ebay, an international website with new and secondhand items. If you want to buy something you need a credit card, which I don't have so I couldn't buy anything. However, there was another way to pay the items: PayPal. You have probably heard of it, it's a kind of account which is attached to your normal bank account. With uncertainty (because I don't know how it works exactly) I made a PayPal account and now I am able to buy international items. In the meanwhile, I was looking all over Ebay for all kind of stuff. Initially, I was looking for a mobile phone which stores don't sell anymore, because it is a few years old. On Ebay they sell those phones brand new! So you can imagine I am very happy. I haven't bought it yet, because I am a little bit insecure when it comes to online shopping (especially international, the phone comes all the way from China). So I decided to look for something cheaper first like jewelry or clothes, some fair trade items. Apparently they sell thousands of Fair Trade stuff like clothes, shoes, jewelry, bags, tea and a lot more. I was stunned, because I have searched for such a long time for fair trade clothes here in Holland and it is hard to find them (or it's very expensive). You can't find the clothes I like in H&M or other stores. I only buy the basic shirts in H&M, but I hate it because I know it is made with child labor. Yet on Ebay I found the exact clothes I love (without child labor). They sell such cutes things and I have already some favorite sellers. Today I bought my first two items: a cool winter hippy FAIR TRADE hat and some Tibetan Prayer flags, fair trade as well. If I have received them I will make a photo of it! Another nice thing of Ebay is, that you can buy a lot of items with the US dollar so for us here in the Netherlands it is cheaper! Although I haven't much experience with Ebay, I still recommend people just to take a look! Do you have (bad) experience with buying on Ebay?? Let me (and the readers here) know!

The last entry I wrote here was in Dutch, as you probably read (or saw). It was an older blog I wrote on another website. Anyway, I changed my journal a bit. Instead of the an ‘about me’ part I made a reading list. One of my hobbies is reading books, when time and school allowed me to read. It was a bit unnecessary to have an ‘About me’ part when I already have a profile you can read my interests. So now you can keep track of the books I read and afterwards I will write a review. The last entry is about the Twilight Saga books and I didn’t want to write one in English (how lazy am I? ;) ). Next review will, I promise, be in English. Maybe I will add a list with films I watched too. Anyway, It is not important to explain myself about the Dutch blog, but there isn’t much to talk about =(. I still like to write in English, it’s a good practice and my international friends will be able to read it as well. ~~Even though I make awfully lot of mistakes I can’t find after reading it over a few times.~~

OKAY, I am realizing I am writing NOTHING interesting at all. You are probably very bored of my stupid why-do-I-love-Ebay-blog? I know, I will end this boring entry and leave you alone. Next time there will be more to talk about..

about my “adventures” in my ~~oh-so interesting~~ life ;) ?

Cheers!

By the way, feel free to send me a comment or become friends here on LiveJournal! I like that!

Getroffen door het Twilight-virus!

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:55:14 GMT

Ook ik ben getroffen door het Twilight virus en ik ben mij eigenlijk gaan afvragen waarom zoveel mensen in de ban zijn van deze boeken (en de films).

Het eerste boek stond al een lange tijd in mijn boekenkast maar ik had geen behoefte om hem te lezen. Op internet vond ik heel veel negatieve reacties op het verhaal en de wijze waarop Meyer het boek schreef. Opvallend was vooral dat de boeken steeds vergeleken werden met de boeken van Rowling, de Harry Potter reeks. Volgens velen heeft Meyer een slechte schrijfstijl en weinig variatie in woordkeuze. Helaas, liet ik mij meeslepen door de vooroordelen en had ik geen zin om iets te lezen wat zowat de halve wereldbevolking gelezen had (Oké dat is iets overdreven )!

Eind november kwam mijn vader langs met de film van Twilight. Ik was wel benieuwd en ging hem eens kijken. 'Woow, dit is echt gaaf' was mijn eerste reactie eigenlijk en ik besloot gelijk om het boek te gaan lezen. Dat was het begin van m'n virus en ik heb gelijk de rest van de boeken gekocht (en gekregen van de Sint en Kerst).

De boeken hebben mij veel meer geraakt dan de films (Twilight en New Moon). Vooral 'Eclipse' vond ik heel erg goed geschreven. Je lees de boeken door de ogen van Bella, een gewoon meisje: niet te knap, buitenbeentje, struikelt over alles en trekt het ongeluk aan. Veel meisjes kunnen zich daarom vinden in de personage en spiegelen hun eigen persoonlijkheid op Bella. Je wordt eigenlijk ook gewoon verliefd op de knappe, mysterieuze Edward (althans ik wel)! Een levensgevaarlijke liefde.

(SPOILER BREAKING DAWN !! SCHUINGEDRUKTE TEKST BEVAT SPOILER VAN BREAKING DAWN, MENSEN DIE WACHTEN OP DE NEDERLANDSE VERSIE: NIET LEZEN ALS JE NOG NIETS WILT WETEN!)
Daarom viel juist Breaking Dawn zo tegen. Bella's leven was constant in gevaar als ze met Edward was. Dat gevaar is geweken wanneer ze ook vampier wordt. De spanning tussen de twee is weg, haar leven is niet meer in gevaar. Ze heeft haar keuze gemaakt tussen Edward en Jacob dus de vraag is ook beantwoord. Het werd eigenlijk allemaal een beetje normaal, ze krijgen een kind. Het kwam eigenlijk allemaal terug naar de werkelijkheid (als we het vampier zijn niet meerekenen). Jammer want dat was juist die spanning tussen Bella en Edward wat de boeken leuk maakt.

Na het lezen van de boeken was ik ook totaal niet eens met die vooroordelen over de boeken. Naar mijn mening kan je de boeken van Twilight niet vergelijken met de boeken van Harry Potter. Ten eerste is Twilight een totaal ander verhaal, veel realistischer (behalve de vampieren en weerwolven) want ze bevinden zich tussen de gewone mens op een Amerikaanse Highschool. Harry Potter is daarbij veel verder gezocht en verwikkeld in veel meer mythes en gaat over het verslaan van het kwaad. Terwijl Twilight een liefdesverhaal is.
Ten tweede is Twilight geschreven in een ik-perspectief en bij Harry Potter is dit niet, waardoor je al heel ander soort boek hebt. Het zijn gewoon twee verschillende verhalen en twee verschillende schrijfsters. De vergelijkingen tussen de verhalen slaan nergens op!

Dus heb je de boeken nog niet gelezen en houd je van verhalen over vampieren dan moet je vooral deze boeken lezen. Of kijk de films!
Ik heb het een lange tijd tegengehouden maar nu ben ik net als miljoenen andere fans, in de ban van Bella en haar liefde voor Edward!

Organized

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:42:24 GMT

This is a message written on 12 January 2010.

Yes I am being very organized. Tomorrow I will begin with my first test of this week. This test week will be slightly different for me than for other students because I run behind everything we had to do since November. I missed probably 95% of all lessons because of my illness so therefor I am aloud to do the test later when I am ready for it. So there are a lot of things to be done and it's too much to have a proper overview. That's why I made a schedule and a list what I have to do this week and the weeks coming up. It's nothing like me to be so organized but I am really proud of it and it makes me think more positive. To be honest I wasn't very positive about anything related to school and I am still a little bit negative. The big question is if I will make it this final year at school. People who know me well, do know I want nothing more than graduate and go to university to study history. Last two months I just thought "Give up, you never make it this year, there are too many things you have to do in such short time" and actually that's nothing like me. I am very positive person and I always telling myself I will get my diploma. Today I am more positive about everything since a few weeks and that makes me happy and I feel a bit more energetic. Of course I can't be to excited about having more energy because it can change the next day. Tomorrow I will start with my English formal letter which won't be a problem I think. Next week I will write about the results of this week and if I am still this positive ;)

Books!

As you know I love books. It's really hard for me to go to a bookstore and just watch and buy nothing. That's why it is not the best idea for me to watch on websites like bol.com. I probably spend hundreds of euros on books and dvds on this website. (They are probably very happy with me being such a good customer ;) ). In december I bought three books of the Twilight Saga (I already had the first one). I really like these four books. It's really easy to read and it's a fantastic impossible love story between a human girl and a vampire. I always loved books of the fantasy genre. Like a lot of people of my age I was a huge fan of the Harry Potter books.

Today I bought the 'Vampire Diaries' books, written by L.J. Smith.
During the time of the Italian Renaissance, brothers, Damon and Stefan Salvatore fell in love with a beautiful young vampire named Katherine. Though Katherine's heart was big enough for both brothers, each of them vied to make her his own. The battle for Katherine's affection led to her eventually death, and left the two boys immortal, heartbroken, and forever quarreling. Centuries later, Damon and Stefan are destined to repeat the betrayal that led to their vampirism. They descend on the small town of Fell's Church, Virginia, where their paths cross with Elena Gilbert, a beautiful and popular high school student who bears a striking resemblance to Katherine. . . .It took my attention so I am really curious if I'll like this series as well.

I also bought 'The Other Boleyn Girl' written by Phillipa Gregory. I really wanted to read this book because I am really interested in the English history. This books is about the famous Boleyn sisters.
Mary Boleyn catches the eye of Henry VIII when she comes to court as a girl of fourteen. Mary Boleyn catches the eye of Henry VIII when she comes to court as a girl of fourteen.Dazzled by the golden prince, Mary’s joy is cut short when she discovers that she is a pawn in the dynastic plots of her family. When the capricious king’s interest wanes, Mary is ordered to pass on her knowledge of how to please him to her friend and rival: her sister Anne. Read more...

When I will write reviews about each books when I am finished. Maybe you will consider to read them as well or not.

This is it for now. It's kind of late here. I didn't notice the time until my mother walked in again to say it's better for me to go to sleep if I want to be able to make my tests tomorrow (and normally I am already asleep around this time). To all of my readers: Have a good night (or day!) and sweet dreams!

Language Dilemma & Application tip

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:41:32 GMT

I am back! Over the years I have been on and off here at Livejournal.com but I really wanted to make one again. This time I really want to stay active with my journal. Yesterday I finished this layout, which isn't my own for 100 percent because I haven't been working with HTML for a really long time now so I have to learn it again. It looks nice, doesn't it?
Now I ask myself in what language I will write my entries. It's saver to write everything in Dutch because it is my first language. However, I really hate the Dutch language because there's nothing poetic about it. I make more mistakes when I write in English but it's good to practice (and I am already writing in English at the moment). I'll see what I do, it is my journal after all so I can decide whatever I want to do. Enough about this boring language talk.

A few weeks ago I bought the new iPod touch (32GB) because my old iPod didn't have enough space for all my music plus the iPod touch is just really nice. You can download all these cool applications like games, radio-apps and easy programs to stay in touch with your friends. Since December I have been sick and because of that I can't do anything for school or go to work. The disease I have is mononucleosis (also known as the 'Kissing Disease' or 'Pfeiffer's disease') so I am tired all the time and I don't know when I will be better (that sucks!). Now I am worrying about my school because I am in my final year. So that causes sleeping problems for me at night (the only time I am really thinking and panicking about everything). Sleeping pills or other pills to ease your thoughts aren't the solution in my opinion so I don't want to take those when it isn't necessary.
Why am I bringing this Ipod touch and my sleeping problem up? Well because I found my solution. On iTunes you can find different kind of applications which are specially made to relax: from some kind of hypnosis 'till different sounds of nature. So I was trying those sounds of nature thing and it is really working, I feel relax and I am not thinking about anything and fall asleep with the music on.
There's one application which surprised me the most: it's called Relax lite. It's a guy named Andrew Johnson and he has helped a lot of people with sleeping problems, problems to stop smoking or lose weight. You listen to a relax song and he is giving you directions what to do. It's some kind of hypnosis he use and afterward you feel all relaxed and more awake. So if you have trouble sleeping or do you have a lot of thoughts on your mind, just use this! It's works.. really cool! If you want to try it out, you can find it on his website!

Well that's enough talking for today. I will try to write a new entry as soon as possible.

Regards!