User:	isabelgou
	Date:	2009-12-22 12:42
	Subject:	>:|
	Security:	Public

So, I send out the ICT assignment through my own email since the studenmail asploded somewhere around saturday. I get the following auto-reply; "I'm out of office untill January 5th."

Then why the fuck do we even have to turn this in today?!

User:	pjlynch
Date:	2009-12-22 01:57
Subject:	Season's Greetings
Security:	Public

http://pjlynchgallery.blogspot.com/2009/12/seasons-greetings.html

	User:	hollycomics
	Date:	2009-12-22 09:31
	Subject:	A Sevvie Day
	Security:	Public

( Convincing Hermione isn't as hard as Making Luna Cry. )

	User:	usmu
	Date:	2009-12-22 02:13
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

It's done. The final was this weekend and now I have to do without my weekly saturday evening fix of Strictly come dancing. I haven't written much about it, because the last couple week those fixes were proxy sever enabled reruns on the BBC's Iplayer. Writing about that just isn't the same. Besides there wasn't really that much to write about.

The highlights you've missed: Jade Johnson unfortunately severely injured herself during a dress rehersal and had to withdraw while being a real contender. Craig Kelly should have been voted off the show way before the Blackpool show. Not just because he was a poor dancer, but specailly because he didn't have clue he kept insisting he wasn't as bad as the judges made him out to be. He was though. Other than that the contestants left the show in more or less the right order.

To set the scene for the final: Ricky Whittle had been the number one contender for the title from show one, ending up posting the highest score on 12 of the 16 dances. Having been in the dreaded dance off for both previous rounds despite leading the judges' score board, he was the first to be named a finalist during the semi final.

Chris Hollins emerged as the public's favorite knocking out Ali Bastion, who not only outscored Chris by 12 points on the two dances they performed, but got a perfect score for her American Smooth that night. A shame, to put it lightly, because she had been (one of) the pretender to the throne throughout the series. And she was my favorite celebrity.

Chris was pulling a, dare I say it..., a bit of a John Sargeant. The upside being that, a: he is a distinctly better dancer than John (but that's not difficult, a paraplegic with no sense of rythem is a better dancer than John Sergeant, b: hís partner Ola Jordan is good looking and c: last but not least he was giving it a good go. But he knew he wasn't better than Ali and certainly not better than Ricky.

This fact was not lost on the judges. The fact he was the public's favorite wasn't either. This lead to a for me rather disappointing final. Ricky outperformed Chris in three of the four dances, consistently dancing to a higher technical standard and with less mistakes. The exception to the rule being the Lindy Hop, which both couples performed simultaniously. Though again to a higher technical standard, one of his lifts didn't come off, while Chris was flawless, making their performance roughly equal.

Over four dances this kind of difference in level of performance would be at least 20 points. Five judges, four dances, at least a point difference in quality. As it was the difference after the final tally of the scores was just four points. Why? Because you can't have a champion who has not scored a single ten in the competition and you'd like him to have at least one perfect score as well. And the final being decided by public vote only, there was only going to be one winner.

Chris hadn't score a single ten in all of the competition. Given the fact that Aleshia Dixon had been handing out tens like they were nothing special all series, this was rather telling. But it was all about to change. Not only did Chris score a first ten for his foxtrot, but a perfect score for his charleston. Which looked labored and wasn't a perfect score. Neither did he deserve the ten. It just wasn't as good. Or if it was a ten, Ricky should have scored twelves.

To add insult to injury Chris managed to score solid nines and a ten for his show dance in which he made several elementary mistakes, like not getting hold of your partners hand in time. Ricky delivered a stunning show dance in which he not only lifted his partner onto his neck and did several rotations, but went from holding her to a hands free one. You couldn't tell which of the two was the professional and which was the amateur during this dance. Yet Darcy Bussel managed to give him a nine instead of the perfect score he so richly deserved.

What can I say? The script had been written before the show even started and everybody knew it. The judges knew he wasn't going to win, Ricky knew he wasn't going to win. The deflated way Ricky looked as they were about to announce the result was extremely telling. Headjudge Len had said, I'm going to be slightly paraphrasing here,: "I've said you're the one to beat from show one. And you might well be beat tonight. But whatever happens you are the best dancer here." and he wasn't wrong. This made the fact that the judges played along with the script so willingly and blatently a sad affair.

This also show one thing: if you want a fair result, never ever, I repeat, never ever get the public to decide the outcome. Individuals are usually very nice people. As a group, they're idiots. At best they preferred effort over quality. At worst... I'm not even going to considere that option. But it brings in a lot of money, so they'll keep doing that. And we'll have to endure it again. And I will. Even if the best man didn't win, I did get to enjoy his dancing. I did get to see some great shows. I did get to swear at the tv if Aleshia opened her mouth. In the end it was good times. So I'll be ready for series eight. And as far as I'm concerned they start next saturday.

	User:	isabelgou
	Date:	2009-12-22 00:50
	Subject:	Isabel vs ICT assignment
	Security:	Public

"Geef tevens van elk type een concreet (praktijk)voorbeeld."
"Give a concreet (practice) example of each type each time"

First thought: It is on now, bitch!
Second thought: Crap, The cold embrace is a bit shitty for these tags.
Third thought: Another book then. Lost Souls!
Fourth thought: Don'tpickagaysexscenedon'tpickagaysexscenedon'tpickagaysexscene

And, well, hey. The assignment didn't say I had to quote the article's example 8D (which is bloody Ulysses)

[2:30 edit]
Well, this is odd. We have to do part of our assignment using online bibles, and the one I used while road-testing either broke down or fluked the first time because I cna't get it to spit out results for me now O______o;

[edit of edit] As it turns out I was looking at the English itnerface while the uni triggers the Dutch Interface and the two look so different that I had toruble recognizing it as the same site. Go go shitty webdesign!

[3:34 edit] You know what, I give in and admit that I should've started this assignment at least an hour earlier. 2.5 questions left (that is, three questions, one of which I have the answers, I just need to write them down in a way that makes sense to other people). I don't generally mind picking out Biblical References, but cripes, I'm getting tired of it now. ("If the beginning of Awater is an invocatio, then how does it differ from the classical invocatio?" Well, God with a capital G isn't known to give a shit about writing, for one thing, what with him kicking Penemue out of Heaven For Good and all that*))

ANYWAY... I need liquids and snacks *grumblemutter*

[4:32] And away the asignment goes! And now I still can't go to bed because Mana is koncked out on my arms and I always dissolve into a puddle of 'd'aaaaw' when she does that.

This is one of those assignments that I did either awesomely or horribly, and I'm not sure I eve care which by this point. I'm hoping the teacher will take one look at the first question, blink at the Lost Souls passage and then just writes down a 6 and never looks at it again.

* Yes, I know h/she/it also screwed at least one human but DAMN, you'd think that all the bibles would've made up for that by now

	User:	isabelgou
	Date:	2009-12-21 22:40
	Subject:	:D
	Security:	Public

december wages are in two days early, yay!

	User:	fub
	Date:	2009-12-21 20:59
	Subject:	Finished series: Bamboo Blade
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	okay

We've also finished watching Bamboo Blade. My first episode is here.

Toraji is the instructor of the school's kendo club. He's pretty poor and has lots of trouble making ends meet. One day he meets his sempai from the kendo club from his own highschool days -- the one he always looked up to, but whom he beat one time. The sempai, who also works as a teacher and who also is the instructor of a kendo club, makes a wager with him. If Toraji's female kendo team can beat his sempai's, he gets a year's supply of sushi! Toraji agrees, but he doesn't even have a full team!
Through various dealings and hasty recruitments, he manages to round out his team. Foremost is Tamaki, a shy girl who is a natural with the kendo blade. Her family runs a kendo dojo, and she regards kendo as just one of those things you do. But her sense of justice (instilled by watching too many superhero series, mainly 'Blade Braver') leads her to join the club to fight off a bullying sempai. Toraji convinces her to stay on for the tournament.

There's a whole cast of females in the team: energetic (but not too smart) Kirino, the captain of the club. There's the beautiful Miyako, who acts all cutesy but who has a dark side to her (which she hides when in the presence of her plain-looking and nerdy boyfriend Danjuro). There's the whimsical Sayako, who sometimes doesn't appear at the club for long periods of time. There's Satori, who is quite proficient at kendo but who has trouble keeping her test scores high enough without spending all her time studying.
The male cast consists of Yuji (pretty boring bright and positive guy) and the aforementioned Danjuro.

It all starts off as a typical sports anime: a rag-tag band of players get lumped together and they have to stick together through some hardships to get where they need to be. But slowly the focus ( shifts to Tamaki )!

It's a pretty decent series with enough plot to keep it interesting. It doesn't fall into the usual traps that most sports anime do, and instead focusses more on the characters and the way they cope with their situation. That's a pretty good mix!

Good points:
- Decent animation and voice acting;
- More character development than any sports anime I've ever seen.
Bad points:
- Drags slightly towards the end, when Tamaki is in her rut.

Don't expect any life-changing insights from this anime. But it's quite fun and keeps you watching. For that, I'll give it a 7.

	User:	isabelgou
	Date:	2009-12-21 20:11
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Barbie Fold 'n Fun House
Wow. I used to have one of those. I remember using the streetlamp as a readinglight XD

Bussy day, and it still isn't over. Gotta do that ICT thing (turn-in date is tomorrow). Unpacked the rest of the christmas package, and it's hands-down the most usefull pack I've ever seen. Not a single useless item. They even included a can of whipped cream to go with the hot chocolate. Even better, that cooker? It's there, as well as a grill-piece to go with the grilling cookbook, but it gets even better.... there's a couple of coins taped to the cooker's box with a note saying that the money can be used to buy a bottle of gas for the cooker at a certain store.
How cool is that?

	User:	powerswitch (posted by smashboredom)
	Date:	2009-12-21 15:48
	Subject:	A message from 350.org - "Not done yet."
	Security:	Public

We need you to read this closely, if you would.

You've always counted on us to tell the truth, and it would be useless to pretend we're happy with the outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks.

You'll likely hear the Copenhagen drama spun in a thousand different ways, but here's our honest take on the outcome: our leaders have been a disappointment, and the talks have ended without any kind of fair, ambitious, or legally binding global agreement. It's unclear whether the weak "accord" which emerged early this morning will provide a platform strong enough to deliver the kind of action we'll need in 2010 and beyond.

That doesn't mean you have failed. On the contrary, the movement you have built around the world allowed everyone to understand the scientific issues at stake. Over and over in Copenhagen, UN delegates came up to anyone wearing a 350 t-shirt with words of wonder and gratitude. We were told repeatedly how much this movement has altered both the tone and substance of these negotiations.

( Read more... )

P.S. Just in case you're feeling a little down, here's a special selection of pictures that our friend Shadia put together after the Oct. 24 day of action labeled "350 Cute." They remind us what we're fighting for... To see the full selection (an incredible 250+ photo collection), click here: www.350.org/cute

	User:	isabelgou
	Date:	2009-12-21 14:06
	Subject:	Dayum...
	Security:	Public

Getting my IKEA christmas present on foot may very well be the stupidest thing I've done all year. I'm dead tired, I tore off a nail and my arms feel like wet noodles.

That said, seems to be worth it though. Upon first glance I see tasty cookies, a fleece blanky, a cookbook, pancake mix, herbs, wok sauce,chocolate mix and jam, and accoridng to the car dthat went with it it also includes wraps and a portable cooker.

So, yeah... who'd have thunk, a useful christmas present!

	User:	hollycomics
	Date:	2009-12-21 12:36
	Subject:	Random!?
	Security:	Public

( Life's like a box of Random!?, you never know what you' gonna get. )

	User:	breyten
	Date:	2009-12-21 02:32
	Subject:	soundcloud test
	Security:	Public

Squits and Giggles by NiT GriT

Posted via email from Breyten's posterous

	User:	superhappy
	Date:	2009-12-21 01:13
	Subject:	no comment
	Security:	Public

	User:	futurama (posted by bigbadbutch88)
	Date:	2009-12-20 20:29
	Subject:	I want them all
	Security:	Public

Give me your futurama gifs.

	User:	futurama (posted by hey2a)
	Date:	2009-12-19 22:01
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

So, is it just me, or does it bug anyone else that there is no inflation in the year 3000? Do they discuss it in the DVD commentary or any other place? I am not sure why it bugs me, and I hate to be "that guy." To demonstrate, I will quote the simpsons: "In reference to episode 3f04, Itchy strikes one of Scratchy's ribs, producing one note, then strikes it again, producing a different note. I really hope someone got fired for that."

	User:	futurama (posted by hey2a)
	Date:	2009-12-19 21:50
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Good news everyone!

	User:	futurama (posted by voxwoman)
	Date:	2009-12-20 19:38
	Subject:	Fry's girlfriend dead at 32
	Security:	Public

Brittany Murphy, who voiced Colleen in Beast with a Billion Backs died today. RIP.

	User:	artistic_sillie
	Date:	2009-12-21 01:05
	Subject:	Snooooowwww!
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	loved
	Music:	Anthony Bourdain on Discovery

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

	User:	isabelgou
	Date:	2009-12-20 23:09
	Subject:	...wait
	Security:	Public

Me, this morning; Must remember to type out the ICT assignment tomorrow

Me, in the afternoon; Yeah T., you can come by, I just need to do that ICT assignment... and drop by the IKEA,

Me, just now: ... cock, Mana's getting her shots tomorrow!

So, busy day. Thankfully the shots are only at 15:15, so I should be able to cram in the IKEA trip before then and, uh, I'll look at what I can do with the ICT thing >_______>

	User:	isabelgou
	Date:	2009-12-20 22:01
	Subject:	Snowday photos
	Security:	Public

Two things;
1) A good camera does not an awesome photographer make, and Bad Light + amateur photographer = crappy shots. No pulizter price material here
2) For the sake of looking back upon this in the future I haven't edited the photos outside of resizing them

( 14 large pictures below ze cut )