The weather is so nice…….

It’s hard to believe it's October! I even spotted a butterfly in my garden this afternoon :)

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think its forever" - Dr. Carl Sagan

Isn’t she a beauty? I am talking about the butterfly here, not the picture (that stinks) ;)

In other news: I've added a RSS feed to my blog.
You'll find it there -------->> somewhere
Feel free to use it (or not!)

Friday video: Interesting and inspiring – Free hugs campaign!

I was going to blog about something really interesting today, but there are tree almost-ready-to-be-written-blogpost swimming around in my brain and none of them is reading to jump out yet so, it’s Friday video again. Maybe some of you have seen this video already, and maybe some of you haven’t. I came across this today and decided to pass this on to all my friends…. All I need to do now is find a stranger to hug and my mission will be completed! ;) We all need a hug (sometimes)!

The story behind the video:
Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. “Free hugs” is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whose sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.

In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.

As this symbol of human hope spread across the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity coming together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.

In the Spirit of the free hugs campaign, PASS THIS TO A FRIEND and HUG A STRANGER! After all, If you can reach just one person...

Music by Sick Puppies.



Here you can find an interview with the guy who started a world sensation with his free hug movement. Such a simple idea, that meant so much, to so many.

A blinking light!

There is something really strange going on while I am typing away on my keyboard right now. When I look up, just above my monitor, I see a little webcam. Which I never use btw, I am not even sure why I have one.

Anyway, when I look up I see the little thing. Nothing strange about that, but the little light on top of it keeps blinking and that is kind of strange because it should not do that. Hey come on, the thing isn’t even connected to my PC, it’s connected to an old one which I rarely use and it is switched off. So, what is going on here? Is Big Brother watching me? Is someone listening in? Is it a sign …. Is someone trying to reach out to me? Hmm…. It gives me the creeps! Oh well, it’s probably nothing….just a malfunctioning webcam (screaming for some attention)!

Blogger beta and other stuff.

Dear visitors,

I know there are still some problems with beta and some days I wish I hadn’t changed over to beta, but I did it and it can’t be undone :( . Luckily the log-in troubles are over…..hooray, but now there is a whole new problem with the RSS feeds. It’s a known issue and the blogger folks are working on it…..so, let’s hope it will all be over soon!
Anyway, thanks for stopping by (again) !! I know it can be a really annoying at times :)

In other news! It took me a while but I think I’ve solved the mushroom & baguette mystery.....hoorah!! Thanks Aoj for your suggestion :).It really helped a lot! I now have discovered I can eat mushroom soup and French baguettes, but not together.

I also discovered that horoscopes are rubbish (DUH!). There was no one around with an eye on me…….or was there!? There was this guy shopping with his wife, he looked in my direction a couple of times. So what did I do? Absolutely nothing :) A – he is married (or looked married) and B – he isn’t really my type. He made me yawn (bad sign). Anyway….if he wasn’t the person I must have missed the other one. Boohoo!

So, now I am wondering, how did the other Libras do?

What has been on your mind lately?

Not much to blog about today, so here are some random thoughts a.k.a a rubbish post :)

The Netherlands, that's in the UK, right?
I don’t know why, but an American lady seems to think I live in the UK although my profile states I live in The Netherlands. Okay, I know some Americans think Europe is one big country and others believe that Holland is part of Scandinavia or Eastern Europe, but I’ve never heard that we were part of the UK. Oh, there are also people who believe that Holland isn’t any bigger than Amsterdam…….must be the drugs!

Apparently there are a lot of sad and lonely people in cyberspace.
Yesterday I placed my ‘thank you’ note online. I couldn’t do it anonymously so I opened a new Gmail account just for this occasion. I never expected to receive any mail because I didn’t make an appeal or anything, so I was quite surprised to find a couple of emails in the new inbox this morning. At first I thought it would be spam, but no, it actually turned out to be real mail from people who are lonely, single or bored. People who tell their whole life story to people they don’t know. And the real sad part, they even don’t take the time to figure out if you are a man or a woman. One of the email started with “Are you the man of my dreams?”………ehm….. NO! Or how about this one “At the moment I am living with my b-friend and our daughter. We have been together for 4 years now, but the love and excitement is gone. I miss the tenderness; we live like brother and sister now. I am going to leave my b-friend as soon as I find the next love of my life. Are you him?” Ehmm…….NOPE! Sad isn’t it! She’s already window-shopping while she still is in a relationship.

I still haven’t found what I was looking for
For no apparent reason at all, I want to know more about gang handshakes a.k.a. the slide or the home(y) slide (the handshake that is used by gangs, rappers and kids). There seems to be no information at all. What I want to know is this: Does all the different hand positions mean anything? Why do they lock thumbs? What does it mean? Help!!

Women must work
The Dutch government and trade unions say women must return to the workforce and not tomorrow but today. Good idea! I want to work for money…..so, if they would be so kind to offer me a nice job or at least point me in the direction of all the jobs they are talking about, I would really appreciate it. I emailed one of the guys who introduced this plan some time ago…..I am still waiting for his answer!

Glow sticks
The free glow stick I got at the concert stopped glowing today *snif*. I am a bit amazed….it took the thing 6 days to die :)

Okay, enough rubbish. For some real entertainment…..check out this video, it made me smile :)

---

Reasons to be cheerful:
1.Creating a blog post out of absolutely nothing.
2.The online community I’ve set up last week is being used and the others seem to be satisfied.
3. Butterflies. This morning I was walking near the river and all of a sudden a butterfly landed on my shoulder. It sat there a while before taking off again. Funnily enough it followed me all the way home. Nature is great!

LOST – seems to be the word of the day.

Sometimes one word keeps popping up so many times during the day that it seems to be the word of that day and today that word is LOST. (I am not talking about the TV series here).

It all started bright and early this morning. I was reading the paper online and found out that the Dutch folks have LOST another great entertainer/comedian called Bert Klunder (age 49). He died yesterday after having a massive brain haemorrhage. I was kind of shocked by this news. For years I’ve been trying to see one of his live shows and every time something came up so I couldn’t go. This year however I was able to get some tickets and I was over the moon. Unfortunately this feeling did not last very long. A few weeks before the show, Bert had his first brain haemorrhage, so the show was cancelled and last weekend he had another one and died. The world has LOST a great comedian today!

LOST turned up again just an hour later. One of my friends called to tell me that she had LOST one kilo. She has been on the Weight Watcher program just a few days and is over the moon (hmmm…. There is moon again. Maybe that’s a better word of the day….. nope! I’ll just change that) soooo happy she calls me every day to tell me about her progress. To be honest, I don’t like Weight Watchers all that much. Sure it’s a great program if you want to change your eating habits, but I don’t like the weigh-in system. A few years ago I went to support another friend who had started Weight Watcher and they were literally bullying a lady who hadn’t LOST any weight. That is so wrong!!

Later today I was searching the net for some tutorials. I took me a while (and I got LOST a couple of times....a.k.a. distracted) but I finally found what I was looking for. Woo hoo! To make sure I would not lose them again, I bookmarked them. At the time I thought it was a smart move, now I am not so sure anymore because I’ve LOST them. Can’t find them anywhere :(

Jus a few moments ago I was filling in an online form. Things weren’t going to plan so I hit the cancel button and got “are you sure? After you press OK all information will be LOST!” *sigh* I am so glad it isn’t Friday! Why? Because if it was Friday, LOST would be on telly tonight :)

Well, so much is LOST today, there must be something FOUND too? Yup, I found a new item to include in my blogposts and here it is…..

Reasons to be cheerful:
1. I am going to another job interview next Thursday
2. The temperature has dropped considerably
3. My neighbours went on holiday yesterday, so I can enjoy some peace and quiet :)
Not that they are that loud I never hear them, but they do have 3 small grandchildren who have reached the stage of toddler puberty (as they call it here) so they are very recalcitrant, cry a lot, and scream NO all day, every day (yeah, they come to “visit” their grandparents everyday!

A little piece about coffee, lifestyle, speed dating, women, men and rudeness. Interested yet?

Last night, one of my friends stopped by for a cup of coffee. “Just one cup” she said as she entered, because she had a thing she had to go to. “A thing?” I asked. “Yes, a thing!” Ever curious, I couldn’t help myself; I asked her what that thing was. Usually she’s not so secretive about her life, so this behaviour was a bit odd. It took some pushing and pulling but in the end she gave in.
She was going to a speed date event. She was? Yes!! Can you believe it? I was totally flabbergasted, because I couldn’t comprehend why this beautiful girl was going to speed date. First of all, the last time I saw her she was a lesbian and secondly, she doesn’t need an organised event to pick someone up. So, what was going on here? Did she change her orientation to men again, or was she going for the bi lifestyle now? Could be! It seems that more and more girls (funny, I rarely hear about men who do) swing both ways nowadays, it’s almost like it is kind of fashionable now (Oh! Granny is speaking ;)). Okay, but I wasn’t talking about lifestyles, I was talking about speed dating.
As it turned out my friend has been visiting speed date evenings for research purposes only :) She is a freelance writer and she is going to write a column about it. Inquisitive as always, I asked her what it was like.
According to her, it actually was quite nice. A lot of people who attend these events are seriously looking for a relationship, but of course there are fun shoppers and players too. And there is a fourth group: The rude and ill-mannered, lowbred men. You don’t believe the things they have said to her. Things like:
- “Are you prepared to get a boob job? They are not the size I like”
- “I’m sorry I must have missed that…..I only listen to intelligent women”
How rude!! The nastiest thing a guy ever said to me is probably this “I like you just the way you are, but could you please gain 10 kilos or so and grow your hair longer” Not the thing you want to hear when you have just lost 20 kilos and cut your hair short :(
Men *sigh*

Okay, this is getting pretty ridiculous.

This picture shows the enormous amount of junk (mail) I received in just one afternoon… a grand total of 56 items. How absurd!