Oh. My. GAWD.

My darlings!

I have shamefully neglected you.

In my defence: tons of stuff was going on, which I will detail to you right now, hoping you will find it in your heart to forgive me.

First of all, there were my exams.
I really went for it this time (good, because I had eight instead of the usual six and my schedule was rather... fucked-up.)
Long story short, I finally got rid of my freshman courses, which is a relief on its own. Passed 3 of my 6 second-year courses, which leaves me with 3 re-sits, which I'm actually quite satisfied with. Actually got a 14 (out of 20) for my favourite course! Woop!

Second, Ze Grand Movin'. It is done.
Finished my exams on Monday the 22nd and spent the three subsequent days painting. Alone, because The Boyfriend was working. Didn't turn out quite as good as I hoped because the previous layer of paint started peeling off. So we're doing some of it again in September, when we find the time.
On Friday and Saturday, there were two equally vexing and exciting trips to IKEA, in which - we thought - we got all of our furniture. It was only on Sunday that we realised we have no bathroom closet and all our shampoo &c stuff is now in bags until we find the time to get back on that. However, we have very pretty (and relatively inexpensive) furniture right now, and are very pleased with the spaciousness of The Apartment.

Thirdly, Ze Garden, which you knew we would have, because, well, I told you: it is quite barren. The ground is very dry and very very rock-filled, for lack of a better world. It has been decided that we should just scoop out most of the ground (including rocks) and bring in new - fertile - earth before we are able to magically make grass and flowwers appear.
I'm thinking lavender and some herbs (thyme, rosemary,...).

Speaking of which, we had some company over yesterday, which consisted of my father, stepmother, oldest stepbrother + girlfriend, my sister and youngest stepsister. I was very nervous for no good reason at all and am now very well pleased.

Dad has offered to help with the garden (two weeks from this sunday) and will then be bringing a new kitten.

Ay, a new kitten.
Typhus has been quite restless and strangely longing for affection, and we decided (me more than The Boyfriend, but he came around) that a playmate would probably be good for him.
We are still debating names, but so far, Chaos, Brein (which is Dutch for Brain) and something else, which was suggested late last night and I don't remember, are on the shortlist.

Talking of lists: I am, of course, still working on my Project Day Zero, and will update you on progress in a separate post, so as to maintain an overview.

I hope this post has a least put you all at ease that I am not, in fact, deceased and will keep on writing.

Have a nice days, everybody :)

Negligence!

I am SO sorry for my horrible negligence of you all!

But I do have a reason!
I mentioned in my previous post the upcoming exams (only three more days o.O), which is part, but not all, of the reason why my posts have been so sparse.

I have been working on The Paper Of Death, Destruction and Devastation. (concept NOT stolen from E's previous Paper Of Doom!).

Tell me, dear reader, if you have to make a hypothesis about something, what would your first question be?
You have raw data. That's about it.
You have interpreted said data to the best of your abilities.

Now hypothesize!

You can't, can you?

WHY?

Because in order to derive a falsifiable statement from a set of data, you need a theory, a framework to look at those data.
If you don't HAVE a theory, or even a research question, how on Earth are you supposed to make a hypothesis?
Answer: you can't.

Which was my dilemma for the past five days.

But now, The Paper Of Death, Destruction and Devastation is finished. The e-version has been sent (and safely received, I dare say) and the real version will be commited to an uncaring mailbox in the morning.

Unfortunately, being so preoccucpied with said Paper, I lost track of my studying schedule and am now woefully behind, with no way to catch up. I only have two full days to study Clinical Psychodiagnostics (the psychoanalytic course, which is awesome), and so I'm... well, fucked, really.

These exams will not rest until they have sucked all the life force out of me, and so, I take leave of you, barring short posts when I find the time, until June 22rd.

(I will, however, post something every week just to make sure that E's Extra& doesn't take over my entire blog :D)

Goodnight.

When shall I cease with wondering...

In line with my general theory that you have to do some things to get others, also known as 'tit for that', today I offer you an inspiring tale of sacrifice and endurance.

I have withstood, this very day, an epic journey, in order to graduate.

The situation was as follows: in the first (bachelor) year of our wonderful education (clinical psychology being my chosen field) we are to be used as guinea pigs. You heard me. Guinea pigs.
Professors claim this is because we would, through our own experience, learn what it is like to participate in such experiments as are commonplace in our field. I say: they just need people to enter these things and nobody in their right mind would do some of them.
Now, being in my second year BUT having been so stupid as to fail one of the classes that goes with these experiments, I was forced to re-enter 3 this semester.

My first was relatively fun. It was basically a large formal logics test, which I like and am good in.
The second was boring as fuck.

The third was today.

The experiment went as follows:

I sat, for over an hour, on a chair facing a computer in the left corner of a classroom. Facing the wall. Charming.
Experiment leader (young, perky, kind of pretty) ignored me for most of that hour+, never once offering me some water or even elaborate explanations.
It is common decency to apologize for constructing an experiment as boring as this, but she didn't.

The experimental task was this:
A colored geometrical shape is shown on the screen. Participant is to name it. Every now and then, a shape will change either color or shape during session, in which case you are to cease naming it, possibly mid-word.

That's basically it.
15 minutes per phase, 4 phases long, I went "yellow square. Red cone. Purple disc. Green circle. Orange triangle."
Occasionally: "Ora-. Green ci-."

They didn't even look fancy, like this.

The extent of excitement of my day.

Experimenter left the room twice, both times for almost ten minutes (as far as I can tell).

Moral of the story: I have had a very boring day, and an even more boring afternoon, and I want to rant about it.

I learned nothing from participating in these stupid things, and I hate that we are on every occasion used as free lab rats, not even owed an apology for taking up our valuable time with such nonsense.

Tomorrow I will be back, hopefully with something a little more interesting to offer.

Orchid leg piece. HELP.

Alright. So here's the deal.

I've been wanting a big leg piece for a long time now,, and I have 'always' been pretty straight-forward about what I wanted. In general.
Orchids.
A branch of orchids, going all the way from my ankle to my thigh.

Things is, there's LOTS of orchids.
So I'm having a teensy weensy bit of trouble deciding here.

Now, my process is that I ask people for their opinion, and then dismiss it for a variety of reasons, which makes it much clearer to ME what it is that I prefer.

So basically I need you guys to bounce ideas off of.

It doesn't seem like a very glamorous job, but it is, really. I promise. (in my mind)

Contestant number 1:

is a pretty bright red thing, very simple, yet elegant.
I'm not much for simple or elegant, I don't think I am, or anything is, and it's not MY typical orchid, but it struck my eye nonetheless.

Contestant number 2:

is The Boy's favourite, for being pure, and simple, and elegant.
Which put me off of these a bit, but then, for a slightly-colored mostly B/W piece, this may be the way to go.

Contestant number 3:

is a little more up my original alley. Frayed, withered-looking, yet positively beautiful.
I'm a little worried about how it'll be black and white with only a hint of ONE color, and I'm not sure that that's going to work for this flower. Help me out here.

Contestant number 4:

is wonderful. Just wonderful. I like 'em this way, and I like the way the leaves curve and everything, but I'm not getting anything YELLOW tattooed on me. So I'd have to pick another color, and isn't that orchid-murder? Thought-crimes and all that jazz? Plus - maybe simple and elegant is better - for something you have to look at every day for the rest of your life.
But man, I love it.



Sooooooo... tell me what you think, and I will get back to you all.
Karma will reward you for being such awesome people.

Goodnight, and sleep tight!

Ladies and Gentlemen: May I have your attention PLEASE.

Having been occupied most of the day with fretting over whether or not, when, and with which news the appartment-giving-or-denying godlike person would call, I have had little to divert myself.

As I was supposed to participate in an experiment this afternoon, I resolved to do some laundry and groceries and keep my self diverted mainly by the virtue of the huge pile of dishes - a common sight after The Boy has left my abode.
Then in the afternoon, I would do the experiment, be back home, and wait.
However, obviously the experiment was cancelled last minute (without even an e-mail warning!) as I discovered only when already at the scene.
Way to go for wasting my time. Either way, having little else on my mind than "omg why doesn't she call can't she call please call already omg she'll so call when i'm in the little girl's room why why why why why", I was happily diverted both by my trusted sidekick E's offer of tea, and the perusal of some of my favourite blogs, after I got home.

Which brings me - at long lenght - to my point.
Look, I know I'm not a big fish, I know my blogging street cred is relatively low, BUT I feel you don't have to be great (or high and mighty) to appreciate the fine writing, interesting musings and diverting anecdotes of others.

And so I have decided to give out my first ever award.


Non-Eddie Izzard fans will no doubt be quite clueless (hint: rent all of his DVD's - you will not be sorry).

Without further ado, I have the pleasure of presenting to you:

The VANILLA awesome blog award.


Na-na-nana-na-na.

I hereby give it out to:

A bitch about Brittany;

Musings of a Muse;

Someday I'll get there;

That Unreliable Girl;

The Land of Earth Muffin.

So, I would urge you all to go and read them, as they are all in their own way equally wonderful, and tune back in tomorrow for - hopefully - more news about The Apartment.

Tradition

Dear readers,
today I have decided, somewhat late, to make a traditional Easter post.
Well, actually, I will be rambling on and on aimlessly, but that's a good tradition, I guess, so let's not cut that out, shall we?

My good friend E. told me yesterdag that at her in-laws place, they didn't eat any meat on good Friday, which struck her as peculiar since here in Belgium, that's considered kind of an old-fashioned habit and her in-laws aren't even really religious.
We both had a good laugh when, that same night, lots of candy was being distributed and several people were - figuratively speaking - forced to go to the hospital for chocolate-overdosing.
(which, by the way, is how I wanna die. Seriously.)

We pegged it down as an odd family tradition and thought no more of it.

But then I started thinking.
Tradition isn't so bad, is it?

Well, I mean, I don't have any.

I've been living alone for two years and have no traditions to mention, except perhaps an occasional lapse of focus during studying which inevitably leads to me, curled up in front of the TV. Which is baaaaaaaad!

I guess I'm just too damn cynical.
But honestly, wouldn't you be?
Easter is about the (alledged) ressurection of Zombie Jesus Jesus Christ, not about candy.
I prefer the candy, but that's still how it is.
I doubt "Our Lord" had meant for us all to gorge on chocolate and those teensy weensy sugar eggs that I love so much. Ya' know, that was probably not the point.


(unless of course he had this in mind)

We all know that the traditions of yore have long since been watered down (or shimmied up) to something the masses enjoy more than religious fervor (not that I mind that) and deep thought about the state of the world and peace among mankind and SIIIIIIIN.
Tradition is something we cast a glance at, sniggering cynically.


It's just a way to sell beer.



(you know it!)

But I object!

I want traditions!
I want to wake up fifteen, twenty years from now, on Christmas or Mother's Day, or Spaghetti Monster Day and know what to look forward to! I want to know that on Christmas, we will all be eating french fries with lots of mayo because we're so hardcore cynical awesome whatever. Or, possibly, that my young'uns will have sat up all nights to catch a glimpse of Santa, and that Santa is going to be our obese Pakistani neighbor.

I want Sundays, or Saturdays, whichever, to be special. Every Wednesday: visit to the ice-cream parlor! Every Friday: a new dish we never ate, and then, because I can't cook worth shit, we order pizza.

That sort of thing.

Not too much tradition, because it'd become boring, but something, maybe.
I don't know.

What about you?

Do you have any traditions? Would you like to have them someday?
Tell me =]

Extra! Extra! Sado is forgetful!

I hope, my darlings,

that you will all readily forgive me for my horrid forgetfulness, especially as:

1. You have no idea what the forgetfulness issue is even about, as I don't think I have mentioned it before AND
2. I will make up for it immediately.

What I forgot was, that, while E. was here to rescue me re: the photos of my bookshelf I had promised, I also asked her to take a bunch of pics of me with some of my tea and with my Kitty Of Doom, Typhus. (We tried to take a good picture of Typhus on his own as well, but he was extremely jumpy for no apparent reason).

So here they are:


(nobody ever admits it, but you can see the murder in his eyes, can't you? I know it.)

I got him off the internet (which is a cautionary tale for all of you - murder kitties are online, sweet kitties are in the pound or with friends), as it were, in an ad, when I just moved out and got my own place. I was turning eighteen in a few weeks, and being alone scared the shit out of me, which is why I opted for a cat as a pet. The cat is had in mind was:

1. Female
2. Small
3. Sweet and/or lazy

Typhus, on the other hand, is:

1. Male. Well, not anymore. I had him neutered - not that it calmed him down in the least.
2. Well, okay, he's not huge, so that's fine.
3. Neither of those. To be fair, he did calm down a bit lately. But I swear I could use him as a watchdog. I'd be totally safe.


Hey, remember how I said in my "about me" bit that everything dies in my hands.
I wasn't kidding:


(these are my dead orchids.
I mean, how little water do these even need? And they still die on me :( )

And no, I am not an alcoholic. It's madeira wine, which I used once to make tomato-meatballs. They failed.


(in conclusion: I like tea. A lot.)

Though I have to be fair and say I never drink the Camomille. That's The Boy's. I don't think he drinks it now anymore, either, though. Odd.
Am going through a vanilla-heavy period right now (vanilla lip balm, vanilla body butter, vanilla tea, a blog named after vanilla tea,...), but my Twinings Vanilla Black Tea isn't shown here since I keep those in my special Tea Box, which is cute and made of wood and which I love love love... but forgot to take a picture of.

And on that happy note, I leave you.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for my Feelgood pt. 2!

Well hello there.

So here I am - at last - starting to blog.

Am I interesting? In all likelihood, only moderately so.
You have been warned.

Will I keep this up? Probably on and off, depending on my work for school &c.
Don't be alarmed, you probably won't miss a thing.

Read me if:

* you're always in need of more good books to read
* you like knowing which movies suck, which don't, and which suck but are worth watching anyway because they're so damn hilarious.
* you like tea. I go on and on about tea. I'm technically a Twinings-girl, but have been known to cheat on my beloved.
* you have a cat, and wish to read about one who is decidedly more evil than your own. Mine is Typhus, and it wants to rule the Earth.
* you like hearing interesting titbits like "research by [those and those] has shown that [something you never saw coming is, in fact, true]".
* you have no life of your own and are very interested in what clothes I wear and what haircut I have. (stalkers not appreciated.)

For now, I would just like to say hello. Nice to meet you.