July 27, 2008 @ 11:36 PM 3 Comments

Today I found out that it’s nearly impossible to do Pilates exercises with Sam in the room. He sees it as one big game and thinks I’m doing it to play with him.

When I was laying down on the floor doing my breathing exercises, Sam climbed on top of the sofa and jumped down from it. Landing with all four of his paws in the middle of my stomach. Needles to say, I didn’t need to exhale after that, the air was already out of me.

Another one of his favourites, is when I move my arms and legs separately (or simultaneously). For some reason he thinks it’s my arms are a big toy he can play with and sink his nails or teeth into.

After 10 minutes into the work out, I had enough and quit for the day. Tomorrow, I’ll try to create some space in the bedroom to do my exercises there. I could of course just lock Sam up in the bedroom or something, but considering I would have to move his food and water there too, and the litter box, that just isn’t an option. And not moving those things over, is just cruel, especially with the current weather conditions. He (and all other animals) need to have permanent access to water and the like…

I guess it’s just another lesson learned; don’t do Pilates with a cat in the same room.

July 26, 2008 @ 8:03 PM 1 Comment

Unfortunately, United: The One Fanlisting, is no longer under my care. After getting an email about it from TheFanlistings.org which ended up in my spam box (so I didn’t see it) and another one confirming the deletion of the fanlisting, it has now been deleted.

However the listing is not completely gone. Even though I reapplied for it, after I was told it was possible, there was a (little) mistake and it turned out someone else had already applied for it and was approved for it as well. So for now, I’m not able to get it back.

I tried to see if I could get the info about the new owner, because they might want to have the list with current members. But TheFanlistings.org isn’t allowed to give out that info to others, and I have to wait until the fanlisting is finished and contact the new owner then..

Cross Browser is still open though!

July 23, 2008 @ 10:53 PM Comment?

I love the smell of leather, and I love leather jackets. So when I saw a leather jacket on sale I couldn’t resist and bought it. It’s beautiful and smells awesome!

@ 10:51 PM 2 Comments

It’s not a big deal but I wanted to share it anyway as I feel it’s a personal victory. Something that I’m a little bit proud of as it took me so long to overcome this.

For as long as I can remember I have been biting my nails. Not to an extreme where the whole nail would be gone or where my fingers would bleed. But enough to make my hands (and nails) look ugly and uncared for. A few months ago I decided it was (yet again) time to quit biting.

Of course this is not as easy as it sounds, as it’s a habit that’s hard to get rid of. Especially if you do it without noticing it. So after trying to stop it, and catching myself doing it even during dinner break at work, I promised myself a nice reward if I could stop it long enough to make my nails look reasonably pretty.

The reward would be acrylic nails to make them look nice. Surely it’s not a good idea to bit fake nails as it will completely ruin your real nails, so stop biting would be vital.

I have managed to stop biting and my nails have started to grow. They are now up to a point that people actually make comments about them and come up to me to ask if I have fake nails. Which I don’t! They are now of reasonable length and they look strong and healthy.

Probably the main reason why people ask if the nails are fake is because I managed to give myself a French manicure and from a distance it really looks as if they are done in a salon. And even though I love the look of fake nails, I have now decided that I won’t get them for a little while, just because my own nails now look so nice and that it really isn’t that hard NOT to bite. It’s actually not that hard to even give myself a French manicure.

So who knows, maybe in the future I will get some fakes put on, but for now my own nails look great and that’s an even better reward than (expensive) fake nails. But because I now saved money by not getting the acrylic nails and also because I’m now able to change the French manicure to something that matches my outfit in an instant, I went out and bought a few nice colours of nail polish (and a leather jacket, but that’s another story)…

What’s your latest personal victory?

July 20, 2008 @ 10:00 AM 1 Comment

When I was surfing on Facebook during the weekend, I came across a page dedicated to Achmed the dead terrorist. I had never heard of him, but since I’m usually hiding under a rock when it comes to these kind of things, I guess most of you know ‘him’.

Either way, I just wanted to share this video with you. It’s part of Jeff Dunham’s show and I just think Jeff (or Achmed) is hilarious!

July 19, 2008 @ 1:12 PM 4 Comments

After being extremely busy at work, due to the summer holiday and colleagues being sick, I decided it was time to relax a little during the weekend and make my home even more homey. Yes, that meant spending a little more money but I figured with all that spending over the past few weeks 10EUR isn’t going to make a difference.

I love flowers, but because of Sam (who likes to attack them!) I don’t buy many flowers or plants. But that’s going to change, it’s time Sam learns to live with the greens so I bought some plants (for the homey feeling). My favourite plants are orchids. I don’t know what it is about them but they are so beautiful (along with tulips) and when I found one on sale today I just had to have it.

After bringing it home, I could already see the look on Sam’s face; play time. It only took a little reprimanding to have him leave the plant alone and it’s now decorating my home beautifully, and it already feels a little more homey…

July 15, 2008 @ 11:14 PM 2 Comments

First off, I wonder how many search hits this entry will get just by the entry title. It would be funny to be able to monitor how many people end up on SB.com just by using those words.

But, I didn’t name this entry like that for hits. I wanted to make a little post about a band from Australia named The Beautiful Girls (TBG). I already had their album ‘Learn Yourself‘ and really liked it, and since yesterday I also own their album ‘Ziggurats‘ which I like even more. It’s really good!

If you like music and have an open mind; go check out TBG, they are awesome…

July 14, 2008 @ 10:40 PM 2 Comments

Even though going out for dinner is great. Nothing beats a home made meal, especially home made vegetable soup. It’s really easy and it only takes about 30 minutes before you can serve it. So here it is, my little soup recipe;

You need:
minced meat (enough for little meat balls in the soup)
1 bag of freshly cut soup vegetables (available in supermarkets and vegetable stores here)
rice vermicelli (or another kind of vermicelli)
4 bouillon cubes for an average size pan

How to make it:
Fill a pan with hot water and put it on the gas to get it to start to boil. Meanwhile, make little balls of the minced meat and put them in the hot water (be careful, don’t throw them in, you’ll get burned from the splashing water!).

Once the water starts boiling, the meat balls will get cooked and start to float. As they cook, it forms a little foam layer on the water. You have to get that off with a spoon so the water is free of foam again.

If the water boils you can add the 4 bouillon cubes to give the soup it’s flavour and color. Let it dissolve for a few minutes and than you can add the rice vermicelli to your liking. If you like thick soup; add more, if you don’t want your soup filled with vermicelli add less (or non if you don’t want any).

Last but not least; add the vegetables and let it boil properly until the vegetables are soft and bite ready. Now, serve and enjoy!

July 13, 2008 @ 9:37 PM Comment?

I went out for dinner in a nice little restaurant with my family tonight. We never been to that restaurant before, but it was recommended by someone to us. By itself that would be an excuse to go out for dinner, although my parents decided that it was ‘for the summer holiday’.

Non of us, except for Rob, is off work yet but hey, that doesn’t matter as long as it’s a semi-valid excuse for going out to eat, right?!

July 12, 2008 @ 11:08 PM 3 Comments

I think it’s time to lock up my bankcard for a little while. It would be a wise thing to do anyway but hey I need it to buy food eh?!

I have been spending a bit more money than I’m used to lately. I bought a new laptop two weeks ago, and yesterday I finally gave in and bought an Ipod. Surely, I have an excuse for both the laptop and the ipod, but still, it’s a lot of money non the less.

The reason for buying an Ipod is because both my radio and my mp3 player broke. So I decided to go for an Ipod and buy a docking station (or connect it to my speakers) so I can replace both items with just one.

Anyway, I’ve been playing with it for a few days now and I love it. I can’t put it down. I never wanted one because I thought it was too expensive, but they seem to have gone down in price a bit lately (at least the one I got; 3rd generation 4G Nano ) and so far it seems value for money.

Ooh and that’s not all I got lately! I renewed both Silent-butterfly.com and my photography site so I’ll be around for at least another year

July 10, 2008 @ 9:24 AM 2 Comments

A few months ago I was in another state bringing my sister to work. We were driving on the highway and just took our exit when my car door flew open. After a bit of laughing (it was really funny at first) we realized the door didn’t shut anymore. Luckily we were close to my sister’s work so I stopped to see what was wrong.

The lock was broken on the driver side so I had to wait a few hours for someone to come down (thanks dad!) to pull the door shut with ropes so I could at least drive home. It got fixed the same night so I thought all was well.

Until a few weeks ago, when I had to be towed home from work due to a broken battery. That got fixed a day or so later so I figured I had my share of car trouble for this century.

But of course I was wrong. Yesterday I dropped my mum off at a friend’s house when I tried to lock the passenger door. You guessed it… it wouldn’t work! It wouldn’t shut anymore either! After a little bit of pulling and pushing, I suddenly had the lock in my hand. OOPS

After trying to tie up the door with some rope, which wouldn’t work too well. I got fed up with it and gave the door a really hard push on the outside, which was followed by a loud clicking noise, but the door seemed shut. Just when I thought I broke it even more, I decided to try and see if I could put the safety lock down to stop it from opening. Lo and behold, it worked. I was able to drive home and to work that afternoon, but didn’t dare touch the door.

I called the garage earlier and explained the problem. Hopefully it can be fixed today, the garage owner was going to see if he could look at it today. It’s not a problem that needs to be fixed today. The door is locked, it’s also secured with some ropes so I can drive around.

Let’s just hope this is really the end of my car troubles. Three times in less than 6 months is more than enough.

July 08, 2008 @ 10:42 PM 1 Comment

Sam has been with me for nearly a year now. And he has grown so much over the year that it’s hard to believe he fit in my hand when he first arrived.

For those of you who don’t know the story of Sam, here it is in a nutshell; Sam was 6 weeks old when he was removed from his mother (who couldn’t take care of them) along with his brothers and sisters to see if he had a chance to survive. The whole nest was pretty sick, so they had to be removed and brought to the vet clinic. He was the only survivor of the litter and had to spend three weeks at the vet’s.

Sam came out pretty good considering his circumstances, he ‘only’ had a severe eye infection which left him with a damaged eye. Luckily that won’t stop him though. Being only 9 weeks old he was actually too young to be placed somewhere but he was better and could go home. So I took him in.

Admittedly he was pretty ugly when he arrived at my house, although I was too proud of him to see his ugliness. I only see it now, in photographs…

He’s now over a year old and he’s very playful but also very sweet. He used to bite a lot and was very wild, but now he wants to cuddle and play and just lay with me. He follows me around everywhere and he looks so much better than a year ago.

Even the vet says he’s now very pretty and that he’s even cute!

I’m just glad that he survived and likes to live in my house. It’s very nice to come home after work knowing that he’s waiting for me to have his cuddles and that he’s just happy to see me.

@ 11:16 AM 3 Comments

Rain rain go away, come again another day. Like, when it’s winter or fall and you’re supposed to be falling down! Not when it’s near the middle of summer…

July 07, 2008 @ 11:34 PM 4 Comments

I have been thinking about participating in the National Geographic Photo Contest for Belgium and The Netherlands but when I went to the site I noticed so many beautiful photographs. Truly much better than mine, and I’m not talking myself down, they just are!

So now I’m in doubt, should I just go for it and try? Or should I forget about it and not participate at all. Generally I would say ‘nothing lost, nothing gained’ by just sending in a photograph. But at the same time I don’t want to make a fool of myself by even thinking that my photos are good enough.

I do know that if I participate, I want to go to certain places to get some great photos before admitting them. I have until September 1, 2008 to send them in so it’s still a month to go.

What should I do, participate or not?

July 06, 2008 @ 10:18 PM 4 Comments

Why is it that my whole family gets a nice tan when they sit in the sun, and I still look like a milk bottle?! OK, I do have a bit of a tan but compared to them, my middle name might as well be ‘milk’..

Today we had a BBQ at my sister’s house and we all sat in the sun for about the same amount of time, they all got even more tanned than they already are, and I look a bit ‘creamy’ now but that is it. I guess they only option is to find someone paler than me and stand beside them all day to make me feel tanned .

Now that is off my chest I can finally reveal the answers to the photo challenge I posted yesterday. The first photo is not -unlike everyone thought- bubble wrap, but it’s soap suds photographed with a macro lens. Most of you got it pretty much right on the second photo (I told you that was easier!), it’s indeed water, but I didn’t put it there, it was the rain on my window, and the colours behind it are from the sign of the store across from my apartment.

Thanks to Amanda, Amber and Corinne for trying the guessing game!

July 05, 2008 @ 10:10 PM 4 Comments

what you see in the following photo? I guess this post needs some explaining first though. Today I was reading National Geographic Magazine and noticed some beautiful photographs. So I went online and found even more, but these seemed to consist out of textures.

Seeing it as a challenge I tried to make some texture photographs myself. Although they didn’t come out very well, or at least as not as good as I wanted them to be, I think it’s a nice way to see if anyone can guess what exactly it is I photographed.

Surely the first one might be a bit harder than the second one, but I’m anxious to see what you all come up with. Here are the photos;

The answers will be revealed in my next post!

July 04, 2008 @ 10:36 PM Comment?

Why do people set up a commenting system when you have to log in or sign up to Google and the like to be able to comment? Useless really…

@ 9:09 PM 3 Comments

Every year we have kittens with our barn cats. And every year I say the same thing ‘Ooh they are so cute!’ Seriously, they are. If you look at them play together for a little while you can see they all have different characters. Some are a bit shy, others are quite playful and others are just up to no good.

Unfortunately this year, most kittens are  a bit scared of us ‘big humans’ and tent to run away when I come too close. So it’s a bit hard to take some good photographs but I’ll manage to get some great shots over the next few days, I’m certain of it.

Just by spending a few minutes outside today with the camera I managed to get a few nice photographs. Including one from one of the mother cats, who was keeping an eye of them from on top of the fence.

This little kitten is from the same mother as Sam is from. If I look at his face I can see a little resemblance with Sam. That look on his face is something Sam can do as well, especially when he’s up to no good.

Meanwhile mum is keeping an eye on the kittens sitting on top of the fence. If one of the kittens does something wrong, she punishes them, whether it’s her own ‘kid’ or not. Which is something I noticed in all cats here, they don’t raise the cats by themselves, all cats in the group have a part in helping with the kittens.

Hopefully the weather will be good over the weekend, and I’ll be able to get some more photographs. It was great all week but I’ve been ill all week (the GP didn’t think it was pneumonia but he gave me medication anyway) so I couldn’t go outside with the camera. So stay tuned for more kitten mischief.

July 03, 2008 @ 7:27 PM 3 Comments

For the last couple of days I have had some problems with my McAfee account. For some reason it wouldn’t accept my password. Although I was quiet sure I was using the right one, as I had written it down when I created the account.

After trying to get a password retrieval email at least 3 times on Monday, I contacted customer support yesterday with my problem. McAfee has a great system that allows you to get customer support for free, or well nearly free. They have an online chat system that allows you to talk to an employee, instead of calling them. This is a great service as you don’t have any extra costs on top of your internet subscription, in contrary of using the phone service.

When I contacted the Customer Support yesterday, I explained my problem and hoped it would be solved quickly. I mean how hard can it be to get an email send to my email address I registered with? I couldn’t have been more wrong, after more than 30 minutes in the chat, the only thing I achieved was that the employee could tell me my email address (which I submitted before the chat) and when I resubscribed to their service (and I already knew that too!).
Even though he tried his best, or at least that’s what I assume, he couldn’t solve my problem and told me they had server problems, so to ‘keep trying with the old email and password’.

Great advice! After trying a few times with the previous settings, my account gets blocked! And of course the only way to unblock it, is to retrieve a new password by email.

All I wanted to do was bang my head against the wall, but considering that wouldn’t do me (or my computer) any good I decided to have one more go at the chat support today. After some server updates on McAfee’s side I finally got a hold of a representative and within 15 minutes all was working again. He understood the problem immediately, reset my account and password, gave it to me in the chat and asked me to try and login.

I could login instantly and was prompted to change the password. Which I have written down, once again. Now my computer is protected again and I feel safe. I just wonder why the first representative couldn’t have done this yesterday, it wouldn’t have frustrated me as much.

Overall I’m very satisfied with their Customer Service. I have had a slight problem before with my set-up and contacted them through chat then, everything was solved within 10 minutes then too. So all in all 2 out of 3 and for free is definitely not bad. Especially if you compare it to other Customer Services.

What’s your best or worst experience with Customer Service and did it eventually get solved?

July 02, 2008 @ 8:41 PM 1 Comment

For those of you who were wondering what kind of laptop I got; it’s a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 2540. It’s probably not the best laptop around, but certainly not the worst one either. So far I love it, I didn’t know I could actually open my mail immediately instead of having to wait for it a good 5 minutes before it would load .

I still have to add things from my back up, but so far I already installed and loaded some of the old things I had. Such as files and emails. The only emails I lost are the mails send to my account between June 20 and July 1. If you send any emails to me in that time frame, please resent them as they have been lost…

You might have noticed that there now are ‘Asides’ on the sidebar. You see those things everywhere these days and I kind of liked the idea to be able to add short thoughts without having to write up a whole new post in my blog. Those asides will not show up in the feed, nor in the recent entries list so if you want to know what’s on my mind; just visit here .

There are some more things in the making, such as a special site for Sam and Cas, but those photos have to be recovered from the back up first.

The one good improvement so far though is that I’ve already updated 2 days in a row, not a bad start eh?!

Edit: I completely redid the setup of the themes. Most of it is done but there are a few things that I’m not satisfied with I have to look into. On the Butterfly theme I created a gap between the header and the content, as it should be, I noticed that on the subpages it was sqeezed against the header.
Also, I didn’t know that my poetry wasn’t working!

@ 1:30 PM Comment?

My new laptop is a joy. So much faster than the old one.

July 01, 2008 @ 9:52 AM 5 Comments

It’s time to go, and time to move on. To move on to something better. I have tried to adjust things, to make things better but it didn’t do any good.

Sometimes I ask myself, what is 10 minutes? But 10 minutes can be a long time, especially if you’re in a hurry. And yesterday I decided I can’t do this anymore, or actually the decision already came over the weekend, and it has been lingering in the back of my head for a while now.

I hardly use it anymore, just because ‘it takes so long’ to use it. It annoys me to have to go through it, and that’s never a good thing.

So this is my last blog from here, and I’m saying goodbye…

Goodbye to my old laptop, and hello to my new faster laptop which should be arriving today!

Thank you for a good 3 years of service, you will still be around, as a back-up, so you’re not completely disposed off.

And for those of you who got a little scared and thought I was leaving and closing my website (or for those of you who where doing a little dance singing ‘Ding Dong the witch is gone’, too bad, I’m still around!). I’m not going anywhere.

Actually I’m hoping that with the new laptop it will be easier to update things. With my current one, I have to wait at least 10 minutes for it to boot. It freezes up as soon as I want to use MSN, or when I want to internet while it’s running an anti-virus scan. The scanning itself seems to take up forever as well. So yesterday, I purchased a new laptop which should make all of that a thing of the past!