Vash

Marcus + Abby | Moments of Impact

2017-01-21T22:51:17Z

vash26 @ 2016-02-27T08:02:00

2016-02-27T07:02:08Z

I Am On Tumblr As Damnflamingo I Think. I Dont Use It That Often Either. I Have Never Managed To Find My Place There. I Should Probably Make More Effort. I Find It A Bit Complicated.

Because I'm pretty sure this poor guy never had a picspam...

2013-02-07T15:03:04Z

I just dit a mini rewatch the other night. Everytime I watch the mini I feel sorry for the poor officer that gets the diplomatic duty at the remote spacestation. He seems so depressed, the way he walkes up to the desk. He's just worn out. I'm wondering if he has marital problems or if he just misses his family being that far away. For a minute there I wonder if it's that annoying Boxey in the picture, no, *sigh of relief* they just happen to have the same haircut. And then the red dress of doom appears. Poor guy, he never stood a chance.

Handbag meme again

2013-01-26T20:40:06Z

I just can't resist this meme, I saw it over at akachankami and am doing it again. I have so many bags, it's just ridiculous, but this is the one I've been using for the past couple of days. My bags always double as daiper bag as I always try to travel as light as possible. So the practical bags win these days and the pretty ones stay in the closet.

1. Lego/Duplo cupcake. With three kids under five there are toys everywhere, that includes my bags.
2. Squeaky elephant toy
3. Baby sunglasses, they're Kiki's favourite and she looks fabulous with them.
4. Pacifier, pink of course.
5. Single kids glove, I have no idea where the other one is so I should probably get rid of it.
6. I have no idea how to call this in english, baby handkerchief?
7. Santizer spray
8. Calendar
9. List with nailpolishes I want. I always make shoppinglists for the hubby to bring me back stuff from abroad - lols.
10. iPod with earphones
11. Bike lights, somehow these are always in my other bag when I need them *sigh*
12. Make-up. Bronzing powder, nailpolish and blusher. Every girl needs some colour in the winter.

Pretty good if I may say so. Hardly any junk at all. So what's in your bag?

Feya's reflections on art

2013-01-11T09:12:40Z

We took the kids to the Hermitage museum yesterday. There was an exhibition on Van Gogh

Feya: Who painted this?

Me: Vincent

Feya: Vincent? Where is he now.

Me: He's not around anymore, he's dead.

Feya: Dead? Why?

Me: These paintings were painted over a hundred years ago, people rarely live that long.

Hubby: He died very young, he had a bit of a troubled life.

Me: Let's not get into that. (no need to go into the whole cutting of ears and suicide thing)

Feya: Why?

Me: (pointing at Bedroom in Arles) Look, he has a bed just like yours.

Feya: No, my bed has only one pillow. Who did Vincent sleep with?

Me: I'm not sure.

Feya: Are they dead too?

Kiki: Can I touch it?

Hubby: No. Keep your hands on your back. (the hubby has conditioned the kids to watch paintings with their hands on their backs, it's adorable)

Me: Look at this one. He painted a picture of himself.

Feya: Did he think people would like to see pictures of himself?

Me: Maybe.

Feya: Did Vincent paint this before or after he died?

Other museum guest: *snickers*

Material Girl

2012-07-11T19:40:07Z

My friend works as a floor manager in the Ziggo Dome. She provided mee with free tickets to Madonna this weekend. It was ridiculously awesome! So okay, you could distinguish the parts she playbacked from parts she actually sang easily but it still was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. You can never have heard of Madonna and still have a great time watching the show with all the video's, dancers and neat tricks, there's just too much to see.

I used to be a huge fan of Madonna, like probably every woman my age. I remember getting my first music casette for my birthday from my parents. It was True Blue and I still have it! I have nothing to play it with but I'm never throwing it out! Seeing Madonna was just something I had to cross of my list. Check.

Cowboys & Cylons

2012-02-27T23:49:17Z

As my baby is suffering of colic I spend a lot of time awake each night. I use it as an oppurtunity to catch up on some movies and series I'm hopelessly behind with. This night I saw Cowboys & Aliens. In practically the first scene of the movie I instantly noticed this:

This means it's probably time for another rewatch...

Sneakers

2011-04-16T19:57:49Z

I rewatched Sneakers this week.

I have so much love for this movie.

I think I have fallen in love with Robert Redford again *swoon*

I just really loved watching this again. It's just so nice to see Mary in a movie where she's relatively happy and carefree. All the outdated high tec stuff is just hilarious, don't you just love that old school hacking? The first time I saw this movie, I watched it for River Phoenix and ended up falling in love with Robert Redford *lols*

I love the scene where they introduce Liz. I love the way she looks in the whole movie, her make-up is always perfect, she's dressed up and so refined. And that scene where she get's talked into the date with Werner, after analyzing his trash *lols* I prefer the longer hair on Mary but she just looks stunning and rocks the hair. Mary needs to make more movies like this. It's an epic cast, she's practically the only female in it, has more than three outfits and there is dancing *happy sigh*

I stole the screenshots from http://www.moviescreenshots.blogspot.com/2006/09/sneakers-1992.html

Twitter

2011-01-30T11:55:46Z

Since everyone keeps on talking about this, I decided to open an
account as well. xscylon tells me there are loads of
celebrities that tweet the most random stuff and it's a lot of fun.
Since 'vash26' was already taken (I really can't see why) I'm going by
the name damnflamingos these days. Anyway, I still have to figure
out how the whole thing works, how do I find people to follow etc. So
if there's anyone out there who'd like me to follow them, let me know.
Also any recommendations on which celebrities to follow?

I knew Eddie tweets, so I decided to go out and find him. Twitters
suggestions cracked me up instantly.

I know how serious Bill takes dental hygiene, I just had no idea it
had rubbed off on Eddie this much.

Caprica

2010-11-19T15:06:08Z

I just finished watching s01e16

Amanda said:

Luckily Cottle was the practitioner on duty, he'll keep things quiet.

Are they serious?

The Plan

2010-11-12T13:48:17Z

I had started watching the plan several times but never made it past the destruction of the colonies. It hadn't helped that the only things I heard about it were negative, and than there's the whole no Laura thingy as well. Watching the entire thing just raised more questions for me instead. I guess they made it to bind different pieces of the series, but why didn't they do this in the series? The most things it explains didn't need any explaining.The movie seems to be made for the lowest common denominator, that is okay in a mission impossible action movie, but I expected more of BSG.

What was the plan? What I understand from it is that Cavil wanted to extinguish the entire human race. Humans are a threat because they love? So the plan was probably just to kill them all. To me the strong enemy from season one is losing face here. Seeing how the cylons function in the fleet, they seem like a mediocre organized terrorist cell.

A couple of things stood out for me. The first thing is that they have the ugliest strollers ever. Second is that there was hardly any Ellen in the whole movie. She had some very vague scene's with Cavil in the beginning. If they had Kate Vernon, why didn't they give her some more scene's that actually made some sense? The thing that stood out most to me was that none of the cylons want to commit suicide. They all try to talk Cavil out of it when he orders them to. The only one who did it willingly was the Simon model who wanted to save his family.

I really loved the destruction of the colonies though. I had no idea there were so many basestars involved in the destruction. Also the shots of the Scorpia shipyards and the drifting battlestars had quite an impact. Glad I finally saw it, but I'll probably won't rewatch it ever.

Halloween after party

2010-11-01T22:32:16Z

Silly meme I shamelessly stole from xscylon

vash26's Halloween party:

abfabambrosia dressed as the Viscount of Little Skykomishburg.
aka_plynn dressed as a Level 8 fighter.
astreamofstars dressed as a margin.
bsg_aussiegirl dressed as a lazy angel.
bsg_stardust dressed as your mother-in-law.
bugsfic didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.
calebar77 dressed as Guy Fawkes but the exploding barrel of dynamite didn't go down too well.
dallirious dressed as the Vicomte des Boules-Velues.
ecbvann dressed as Pavlova the ballerina -- dancing on point too.
frakkin_eh dressed as a witch.
icedteainthebag dressed as the love child of Al Gore and Mia Hamm, though it looked more like Nicole Richie.
larsfarm77 dressed as a Gilmore AssociatedCorporation employee.
legallybea dressed as a lethargic success.
lynott dressed as a 1960's hippie child.
lytab5 dressed as Jean Claude Van Damme.
mascaret forgot to put on clothes!
maudvandutch dressed as Jennifer Lopez.
melligatrix dressed as a badger.
missbevcrusher dressed as Dwight Eisenhower.
mmegiry dressed as Mde. Lachienne Foutue d'Enfer -- you don't wanna know.
nan_darkness dressed as Wesley Crusher from "Star Trek".
pandj1958 dressed as Adam-the-first-man but the fig-leaf was far too big.
rachg82 dressed as Josephine Baker but the banana "skirt" didn't survive the night.
redrockcan dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Wand of Power.
scifi_mel dressed as Sybil - except that Sybil didn't show but the other 32 personalities did.
seariderfalcon dressed as Bono.
self_preserving dressed as James Buchanan, and it suited them all too well.
sinequanon1 dressed as a can of beer.
sira01 dressed as a bullet.
somadanne dressed as Elizabeth Regina on steroids and roller skates.
sumpta dressed as Halle Berry's cousin.
tayryn dressed as Tom Cruise - tarred and feathered.
therealjourney dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Jolly Specialist.
treeofstars didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.
usagi636 dressed as the Bouncy Power Ranger.
vash26 dressed as Mary Queen of Scots ... without her head. Most convincing.
whatever_lj dressed as Katherine Heigl.
xscylon dressed as something leather, but what, specifically, you can't tell.

Throw your own party at the Hallomeme!
Created by sigma7: More info here.

Handbag meme

2010-10-19T11:52:24Z

1. Dump the contents of your handbag in a pile
2. Take a photo of your handbag and the contents
3. Be brave and explain to your friends what lurks inside the handbag.

This is all very decent, normally I carry around much more junk. I think I can divide it in three main categories, basics, kids stuff and make-up.

Basics:
Phone, headphones, wallet, diary, pen, keys, paracetamol, cigarette lighter.

Kids stuff:
Wipes, daiper, piece of miffy puzzle, raisins.

Make-up:
Foundation, blusher, brush, make-up case with mascara, eye-liner, kohl pencil, lipgloss and emery board.

Just one more before I go...

2010-08-21T18:53:12Z

I know, I promised not to be online much, but thx to frakkin_eh & tayryn I saw this fun meme and couldn't resist. I'm leaving tomorrow, I promise...

At first I thought it would be hard to find twenty shows I've obsessed about (I sticked with tv), but I was at twenty in no time - I watched too much tv.

1) Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/bands [fannish etc.] that you've had an obsessive fannish love or interest in at some time in your life.
2) Have your f-list guess your favourite character/member from each item.
3) When someone guesses correctly, strike through the item and put the name of your favorite character next to it.

~~1. BSG~~ Laura Roslin
~~2. TNG~~ Beverly
~~3. North and South~~ Madeleine
~~4. Thornbirds~~ Ralph
~~5. Return to Eden~~ Stephanie
~~6. Gone with the wind~~ Rhett
~~7. SQ DSV~~ Kristin
~~8. Never ending story~~ Atreyu
~~9. Santa Barbara~~ Cruz
~~10. Pride and Prejudice~~ Mr. Darcy
11. Ciske de rat
12. Noble house
~~13. V TOS~~ Julie
~~14. Beauty and the beast~~ Catherine
~~15. Dark Angel~~ Max
16. Prison break season 1
~~17. Anna~~ Rainer
~~18. Dukes of Hazard~~ Bo
~~19. Robin Hood~~ Robin
~~20. Muppet show~~ Waldorf and Statler

Might as well bold everything...

2010-07-30T13:34:12Z

Taken from xscylon

Google "You know you're from [place where you're from] when . . ." and paste the results. Bold true statements.

1. You consider a small hill a mountain, and complain that because of this all other countries are unsuitable for riding a bike.

2. You are absolutely convinced that your language is the hardest language to learn. Ever.

3. Not that number 2 matters, because you speak at least three languages anyway. Dutch and English, and any or multiple of French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Latin and Greek, and have a thorough understanding of most others, even if you don't speak them that well.

4. Whenever you take your foreign friends to Holland, they will be shocked with the amount of bikes on any of the central stations. You don't so much as blink. Lol! People are always in awe when they see the 'fietsenflat' at Amsterdam central station.

5. You are taken off guard by cashiers who pack your groceries for you and are actually interested in how you are doing. Is there actually a supermarket in NL where they do this?

6. On the other hand, whenever you want to respond to someone saying "How's it going?" by the time you tell them they'll be a mile away.

7. You consider religious political parties the most normal thing in the world.

8. You have to explain over and over again how the soft-drug legislation works.

9. You don't think it's funny that prostitutes have to pay taxes. Well, they work dont they? They should pay taxes too.

10. You know that there's more to Holland than getting stoned in Amsterdam.

11. You cringe any time someone tries to pronounce, spell or write down your name.

12. You think words like "achtentachtig", "scheurbuik" and "angstschreeuw" are perfectly pronounceable.

13. You have gotten used to people thinking Holland is a province of Germany.

14. You are the only one who doesn't think Holland is going to be submerged.

15. You don't consider the inability to elect mayors, senators, governors, ministers or prime minister undemocratic.

16. You either don't care or take pride in the fact that your royal family is the wealthiest in the world.

17. You usually don't bother with changing adjectives into adverbs.

18. You are sometimes considered rude, while all you did was be honest.

19. You are shocked by the low standard of secondary education in any other country but Holland.

20. You like to complain about the weather, high taxes, the weather, inflation, the weather, your neighbours, the weather, religious intolerance, and the weather.

21. You consistently use colons to indicate a direct quote.

22. Belgian chocolate isn't good. It's from Belgium.

23. You aren't phased by an openly gay couple. In my building live eight adults, four of them are gay, I would have a big problem if I was phased by that - lol!

24. You pronounce 'essay' as 'es-SAY'. Hmmm, how else would you pronounce that?

25. You are naturally able to skate, even if you've never done it in your life. Yep, my family is from Friesland, we were born on skates.

26. You own a kaasschaaf, and you believe every household should have one.

27. You eat kroketten, bitterballen, bamischijven, nasiblokken, kipknotsen, and most of all: chips with mayonnaise! Yay, mayo!

28. You love koek en zopie but you don't have a clue what it is.

29. When something in the supermarket is on offer, you buy it, even if you don't need it, or like it, or want it. I'll buy anything that's in the 'bonus'.

30. You collect points from Douwe Egberts packs, and you have a massive collection of points that you gathered from friends and family, that span a gathering of at least fifty years. You never redeem them, though. Guilty as charged.

31. You drink enormous amounts of milk and love the taste of cheese.

32. You still can't say the word "coffeeshop" in a normal conversation about coffee.

33. You love salted liquorice and make all your friends try it, making them puke every time.

34. You calculate distances by how long it takes to cycle there.

35. You don't perceive people applying blackface and wearing colourful costumes to be non-PC, let alone racist. I can understand how it may seem strange to foreigners, but there's not a child in NL who would get racist thought because of that tradition.

36. You're amazed that you can get ketchup for free at McDonalds.

37. You do know that Sinterklaas was there first.

38. You make distinctions between jonge, jong belegen, belegen, oud belegen, oude, twee jaar oude en vier jaar oude kaas, which is either plain, contains nettle, cumin, or herbs (or a combination) and is made of goat, sheep or cow milk. You then proceed to laugh at people who don't know the difference between mild and mature cheddar.

39. Pepernoten are just part of your breakfast around 5 December. And chocolate letters too, yum.

. You never spell the days of the week or months with a capital letter. Why would I want to do that?

41. Being politically correct is something they do in other countries... Lol, true as well...

42. Your bike is one of the most valued things you own, even if rusted and held together with insulation tape. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to cycle with a baby.

43. You've been to the cinema, and people have applauded at the end of the movie. Also, you consider it the most normal thing in the world to have a break halfway during a film.

44. Seeing a backpack hanging off the end of a flagpole doesn't confuse you, but instead brings back happy memories.

45. Orange is, of course, part of the Dutch flag, and you wonder why no other country has a wimpel.

46. You know that Albert Heijn isn't the name of a local shopkeeper, but rather a chain of supermarkets.

47. You know that the 'wonderful world of Disney' isn't anything compared to de Efteling.

48. You shake the hand of a person when you first meet, regardless of gender differences.

49. You had to adjust to the idea that WWI is the Great War, not WWII. Because according to our collective memory WWI just didn't happen.

50. You are surprised that foreigners only greet by giving one or two kisses. Three time's the charm!

51. All English words are 'dutch-a-tised' : douglas is referred to as Doegglas and Mcdonalds as Macdowh-nAlds and fuck is pronounced as fhuuk.

52. 'Lekker' can be used in every situation, using it positively or sarcastically.

53. You can't watch tv after 11pm without escaping the sexline adverts.

54. The cabinet collapses every time you blink. I wish we had a cabinet *sigh*

55. You know what 'gezellig' means, but don't have a clue how to explain it to foreigners.

56. You think it's normal to live a few metres below sea level.

57. You are actually surprised when a train arrives on schedule.

58. Your country's the only country with a Harry Potter look-a-like as PM.

59. Orange is your favourite colour. Above all others. Or, well, it may not be your favourite colour, but it is whenever the European or World Championships Football are on... I dont know anyone without an Orange outfit, even if you dont like football, you'll need one for Queensday.

The living legend

2010-07-23T10:55:54Z

In The living legend - part 1 Galactica is reunited with her sister battlestar Pegasus. It is led by the legendary and somewhat arrogant commander Cain. Adama and Cain's military philosophies clash and the different crews have to decide where their loyalties lie. What I found an interesting difference was that Adama and Cain carry the same rank. There is however no doubt about who's in charge of the fleet, Adama is clearly in command of the fleet. However Cain does have his own agenda. Adama orders an attack on two cylon fuel tankers to resupply the fleet. Cain personally joins the mission and 'accidentally' destroys the tankers leaving the fleet without fuel and thereby forcing Adama to attack the cylon city in The living legend - part 2. In this episode they attack the cylon installation for fuel (sound familiar?) at the end of the episode Cain sacrifices Pegasus in an assault on three baseships (sounding familiar??) leaving his daughter Sheba as a new character on the Galactica.

Cain is relieved from command after he purposefully sabotaged the mission to get his own way, but he redeems himself later on when he saves the day with his brilliant military mind. I can see how he was the inspiration for Helena Cain in the re-imagined series. Although commander Cain is a much friendlier and less troubled character.

Beside the fact that Michelle Forbes is obviously much prettier than Lloyd Bridges there are a lot of differences between their two characters, but also similarities. They are both fierce warriors. The crews of both series are extremely loyal to the Cains. In case of Admiral Cain I think this is partly fear related, while commander Cain is a great warhero and was already highly popular before the attacks on the colonies. They both kept their crews alive in Cylon occupied territory, attacking them for supplies. Commander Cain is stubborn and unable to accept ideas other than his own, Admiral Cain outranks everyone, she has the luxury not having to. Other than that, both seem to be attracted to young hot blonde women.

The magnificent warriors and The young lords

2010-06-20T19:11:14Z

In the magnificent warriors the entire grain supply of the fleet is destroyed by the cylons. They need new seeds and in order to get them Adama has to prostitute himself to a lady called Siress Belloby. In exchange for Adama's courting she gives up her old energizer to trade for the seeds. Adama is very uncomfortable and nervous, which is really quite cute. The usual people (including Boxey and muffit, who have no business going on a dangerous mission whatsoever) go down to a planet with an agricultural settlement to make the trade. Here Starbuck gets tricked into taking the constable position of yet another western town. In the end it all works out so at least this time the fleet isn't forced to eat algae.

Adama charming Siress Belloby into giving him that energizer really made me feel sorry for him. It also made me realize how outdated the show really is. I can't imagine how people would have responded if the writers made Laura date, let's say Xeno Fenner, the foreman of the Hitei Kan, to avoid the strike. I really don't think that would sit well with the current audience, it wouldn't sit well with Bill either - lol.

The next episode is calledThe young lords. Starbuck is captured by the cylons after he crashlanded on the planet Atilla. He got injured during the crash and is carried away by a centurion. He gets rescued from the 'tin cans' by a group of child soldiers wearing white feathers and riding unicorns. After two western episodes, they probably thought they couldn't get away with a third one, so they gave this a medieval theme, including fairytale castle. Their father is being held prisoner by the cylons and they make a deal to trade Starbuck for him. Starbuck convinces them not to go through with the trade. Together they form a battleplan, or should I say 'battle poem', to defeat the cylons. In this episode we see another IL-series cylon. His name is Scepter, and he reminds me of the Gaius Baltar of the re-imagined series. He's a scheming liar with a great sense of self preservation. He gives Baltar bogus reports to cover up his failure and when he's losing the battle he flees the planet. Lucifer is very distrusting of Scepter, which is nice to see, somehow these cylons almost seem more humans that the re-imagined skinjobs. They lie, they're jealous and they act for personal gain. On a completely random note: we learn in this episode that Adama has a huge window above his bed, really, that's the biggest difference between the two series I've seen yet.

The lost warrior, The long patrol and The gun on iceplanet zero

2010-06-18T18:49:18Z

This week I finally had some time to continue my TOS rewatch. I've noticed that there is not a great deal of Dirk Benedict love going around here, but I have to say that he's totally charmed me. I am loving his cheesy disarming jokes and his stereotype seventies behavior. And most of all I love it when he wears a cape, why doesn't anyone wear capes anymore?

The lost warrior is an 'Apollo episode' and I'm sorry to say but really not worth watching. Apollo crashlands on a planet and than works through this wild west scenario. The only good thing about this is that we get to see a cylon horseback riding, which looks ridiculous. Because Boxey's father is missing and no-one has the heart to tell him, he gets to spend the evening with the pilots playing pyramids. Cassie comes in and is being all maternal and scolds Starbuck for teaching the kid how to drink, gamble and smoke. She goes on and on about the smoking 'and get the air recycled in here'. Wasn't smoking supposed to be cool in the seventies? Apollo wears 'native' clothing to blend in with the locals. I'm suspecting that the whole goal of this was for Richard Hatch to show off his chest, which honesty compels me to say is not bad at all.

In The long patrol Starbuck volunteers to test a recon viper. In return he moves to the top of the yahren long waiting list to the dining lounge of the Rising Star. Here he's sneaking around having a date with Cassie and Athena at the same time, and he almost pull it off. The waiter compliments him on it by calling it very pre-war. On the mission Starbuck gets imprisoned but by the end of the ep. he's safely having dinner on the Rising Star again. At the dinner Boxey shows them a drawing he made of the starsystem that contains earth, based on the stories Adama has been telling him. Starbuck takes one look at the drawing and tells them the blue planet is out of orbit and shows them where it does belong. It turns out that in Starbucks cell was a drawing of that starsystem. One of the other prisoners tells them that 'the silent one' was the former occupant of that prison cell. He must have been one of the thirteenth tribe. To me this was the most interesting part of the whole ep. To see where they got the inspiration for the 'Kara knowing the way to earth' part. That whole storyline has always been so unclear to me (and still is).

In The gun on iceplanet Zero the Galactica is herded into an area of space where they must pass within range of a pulsar cannon. (It's not clear why they simply can't pass the planet on the other side) An 'away team' is sent to the planet to eliminate the threat. This 'away team', aside from Apollo, Starbuck and Boomer, consists mostly out of prisoners (where does that remind us of?) and the stowaway Boxey. They really go out of their way to find a role for that kid in every ep. Maybe they should hire a sitter instead of letting him run all over the Galactica all day. The episode starts with Starbuck and Boomer training new viper pilots. This made me wonder what was wrong with all the women they trained a few episodes back. Anyway, the new viper pilots are terrible at following orders, and they get themselves killed or captured. Starbuck feels responsible for this (where does that remind us of?). Because he feels this way he maneuvers himself on the expedition. The prisoners on the team are chosen because of their expertise in handling the icing conditions on the hostile planet, in Bastille day the prisoners are chosen out of necessity and partly out of expandiblilty as well I suppose. Anyway, the prisoners try to escape. Starbuck uses this mission to free Cree (the captured pilot), and to feel better about himself. Everything works out - the end.

Please take the hybrid offline and reboot the system

2010-06-15T11:15:49Z

In one of my useless sessions of surfing the web I came across this picture. Apparently in Guess what's coming to dinner (fast forward to 9:26 minutes) you can see THIS:

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Windows was unable to detect your keyboard. Press F1 to retry or F2 to abort.

Staying on the Rails No Matter What

2010-06-08T10:44:38Z

calebar77 did the book meme and stated that she really wanted to know what her f-list is reading right now. I have to say that I'm not reading anything right now, I'm very happy if I manage to squeeze in a drabble...

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4-7 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest (unless it's too troublesome to reach and is really heavy. Then go back to step 1).
6. Tag five people.

I'm not tagging anyone, but feel free to let me know what you're reading.

The closest book I have around is "Tootle" by Gertrude Crampton. I was reading this to my daughter earlier and it was one of my favourites when I was young. Just by looking at it, I know it doesn't have 123 pages. When I open it, I'm surprised to see that it doesn't have any page numbering what so ever. Well, here a little quote anyway.

"If a Flyer goes very fast, I should like to be one," Tootle answered. "I love to go fast. Watch me." He raced all around the roundhouse. "Good! Good!" said Bill. "You must study Whistle Blowing, Puffing Loudly When Starting, Stopping for a Red Flag Waving, and Pulling the Diner without Spilling the Soup. "But most of all you must study Staying on the Rails No Matter What. Remember, you can't be a Flyer unless you get 100 A+ in Staying on the Rails."

The closest book around with more than 123 pages is "Rubber Gloves or Jimmy Choos?" by Faith Bleasdale. I'm not really impressed by this book. I 'stole' it from the libary on the holiday park where we were staying on Lanzarote. I read the first 79 pages there, and when I arrived home I never read a word in it again. That's not really a good sign.

The two girls arrived first. Fennula and Henrietta. They were as awful as they sounded and the looked like the Ugly Sisters on a bad-hair day. Of course they oohed and ahhed about how wonderful everything looked, but they made every compliment sound bitchy. Jess became just like them. Everything was about one-upmanship. The evening was turning out worse than I had first thought.

I'm not sure if I'll ever finish this book.

Actors/Actresses meme

2010-05-31T09:48:31Z

Given to me by bsg_aussiegirl

Rutger Hauer: Soldaat van Oranje translated, Soldier of Orange. The best Dutch movie of all times. Back in the time when they still had fun fighting World War II, none of the dark realistic stuff they film nowadays. Based on a true story, and what a story it is. I love how regular people turn out to be great heroes in the right circumstances.

Michael Douglas: The American President Funny movie. I love the chemistry Michael Douglas has with Anette Benning (she's fabulous as well).

Michael Keaton: Desperate Measures I really know Michael Keaton best from the Batman movies, but didn't really like them. I'm going with Desperate Measures because the theme was heartbreaking and the acting was good.

Owen Wilson: Zoolander I don't like Owen Wilson at all, and the genre he usually plays, but this movie was one of the most hilarious movies of all time! I love it big time!

Eddie: Bladerunner I love this type of Scifi. And if you watch it now it has a great campy quality.

Eddie Murphy: Shrek Not a big fan of his acting, but he's absolutely great when he's doing animated movies.

Tom Hanks: The Terminal, You've got mail, Catch me if you can, The Green Mile, Apollo 13, Sleepless in Seattle. I can't really decide. I'm going with You've got mail because I had it on videotape and saw it a million times.

Jeff Goldblum: Independence Day I actually really liked this movie, too bad Mary doesn't have a bigger part, it would have been soooo much better. But Jeff Goldblum had a really great role. I love the geeky science guy turning action hero, he does it so well.

Guy Pearce: The count of Monte Cristo, Memento, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Can't really decide this either. Alexandre Dumas' book was my favorite book for quite some time, so when I heard about the movie I had to see it. I didn't think it was THAT good, but since I loved the story so much... I thought Memento was brilliant the first time I saw it, but I never felt the need to rewatch it so..... The Adventures of Priscila, Queen of the Desert Saw this at a pyjama party when I was sixteen and have so many fun memories of the party that the movie climbed up in my favourites list automatically.

John Travolta: Phenomenon, Grease, Saturday Night Fever I cried when I watched Phenomenon, the other two for nostalgic reasons (I'm quite a nostalgic person it seems).

Mary: Dances with wolves, Sneakers Hmmm, can't decide. Any movie with Mary counts as a favourite as far as I'm concerned.

Glenn Close: Mars Attacks, The Stepford Wives, Air Force One She's such a versatile actress, in the first she's hilarious, in the second one she's downright creepy and in the third one she's so loyal to Harrison Ford, you gotta love that.

Cameron Diaz: Being John Malkovich The concept of this movie was mindblowing, whoever made this up is a genius.

Emma Thompson: I am Legend, Love Actually I totally loved Love Actually, but included I am Legend as well cause I thought it was funny a big actor like her took such a small roll as responsible one for the (almost) destruction of the human race.

Kate Winslet: Finding Neverland I'm a romantic fool.

Helen Hunt: As good as it gets Great acting in this movie, Jack Nicholson almost never disapoints

Judi Dench: Pride and Prejudice This is nothing compared to the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini, but I thought Judi Dench makes an excellent Lady Catherine the Bourgh.

Sally Field: Not without my daughter When I first saw this movie I thought it was such an impressive story. I was quite young and couldn't comprehend that a parent would take a child away from the other parent. Later I realized that this actually happens quite a lot if different ways. Doesn't make it any less impressive though.

Shirley MacLaine: Rumor has it, I didn't especially like this movie, but I loved Shirley's character. She's so dark and sarcastic.

Julia Roberts: Stepmom, a bit cheesy, but cried I like a baby (I love Susan Sarandon).

Saga of a star world and The lost planet of the gods

2010-05-07T07:53:40Z

A couple of weeks ago I borrowed my brothers TOS dvd box. I was quite curious to see it now I've seen the reimagined series. And now I've finally recovered the remote of the dvd player, this was the time. I remember seeing the series when I was a child, so that makes it kind of nostalgic to rewatch. I just finished seeing the first two episodes, which actually takes a while, since Saga of a star world is a three parter, and The lost planet of the gods is a two parter. It feels like watching a puzzle where you have to recognize the pieces they used in the reimagined series. This actually makes it a lot more fun to watch.

The series opens with the death of Zak. Apollo is supposed to go on patrol with Starbuck. Zak really wants to take his place. He's like this overenthusiastic puppydog and Apollo and Starbuck indulge him. So Starbuck goes off celebrating the armistice by gambling and drinking and Zak (does he have a callsign? I think they just called him Zak in the cockpit) takes his place and goes on this 'routine' patrol. It turns out there's this (surprise, surprise) huge cylon attack force. Apollo and Zak engage the cylons, Zaks ship get's damaged. Apollo leaves him behind and hurries back to the galactica to warn them. Zak gets killed by the cylons. So as far as I can tell, Starbuck is in no way to blame for the death of Zak.

An other thing that really stood out for me was that there's really no doubt at all, that Baltar's evil from the beginning. He's the chosen liason by the cylons and he also has a place on the council of twelve. Baltar seems to have no problem with the extermination of the human race, which does strike me as somewhat odd. Why would he want that?

Apollo explains to Boxey where the cylons came from. Apparantly the current robots were created by a race of people called cylons, they are extinct and these machines are all there is left of them. Apollo explains that they are very careful not to make their machines too smart. Well, that scene kind of made me smile...

In The lost planet of the gods, almost all the pilots suffer from a mysterious disease which Boomer and Jolly contracted on an asteroid with a cylon outpost. Apollo and Starbuck were together on patrol, so they're the only two fighter pilots who are not in sickbay. Adama orders new recruits trained, which are all beautiful women, including Apollo's fiancé Serina. I was so disapointed in Apollo's reaction, he wasn't too happy about the whole thing. Of course he comes around, and everything works out. They get married and at the end of the episode his poor wife gets shot by the cylons and dies. Poor Apollo, finding a wife, losing a wife, and gaining a child in only two episodes.

It's such a seventies show, take a look at how the women look in their pressure suits. Further on it's colourfull and everyone seems to have fun fighting the cylons, quite a contrast with the reimagined series. And there's one more thing, I anticipated this, but it's there anyway. I'm having some trouble with Starbuck. Somehow I keep expecting the whole A-team to show up and save the day. It's probably cause Starbuck and Face are almost the same characters. They're both womanizing actionhero's who make jokes all the time.

But still, it's fun to spot the differences and similarities, and I do remember everything I've seen so far, which surprises me. I think it's worth the watch, if only for nostalgic reasons.

Marry, Frak, Cliff

2010-04-14T09:25:42Z

1) Comment to this and I will give you three people.
2) Post this meme with your answers.
3) Provide pictures and the names of the three people I gave you.
4) Label which you would marry, shag, and throw off a cliff.

If you want three people, please specifically ask for it in your comment.

calebar77 gave me Tom Zarek, Billy and Bill Adama.

Marry: Bill Adama
Well, the choice here was between Bill and Billy, that's not a choice at all. I am marrying the younger version though, it would be too stressful to see my stepson being thrown off cliffs on a daily basis. Also I would like him to develop our own personal guilt issues, I don't need all that Carolanne shit.

Frak: Tom Zarek
Already being married to Bill and all, the choice here is between Billy and Tom. That's not really a choice either. Billy really deserved a sympathy frak after the whole Dee/Lee thing, but not by me. I think Tom would do so much better between the sheets than Billy, and sometimes you just need to be selfish.

Cliff: Billy
Ok, I have to admit that the poor guy doesn't deserve this, but hey life's a bitch.

Razor

2010-04-10T09:05:39Z

For some reason LJ was not working yesterday evening, or it was incredibly slow. To get my bsg fix, I took out my Razor dvd. I had actually only seen Razor once, so I'd say it was about time. It has me thinking several things, so here are my thoughts and questions.

On the one hand I think the story is very impressive. Cain being a friendly, somewhat strict woman turning into a ruthless maniac (okay, I'm putting this a bit black and white here) who's prepared to make great sacrifices because of betrayal and breach of trust. On the other hand I think it's farfetched. It actually reminds me more of startrek than bsg. Adama who's sending out scientists? That's a Picard thing to do, not an Adama thing to do. Adama sends scouting party's, he doesn't give a shit about scientist.

At the officers dinner Cain declared she was not going to waste resources or lives in a mad quest for revenge. Later on it seems she's doing just that. When Belzen doesn't want to execute her order she shoots him. What's the point in having an XO if you cant handle a bit of contradiction. Is refusing an order In a time of war desertion? Does it deserve the death penalty? Was it wrong? I'm not sure what the rules are in the bsg military in this case. I mean it seems wrong, but maybe she was entitled to do exactly that.

I was hoping Razor would give us a bit more insight and clarity on Pegasus' civilian fleet. Was there more ground for stripping the civilian fleet than was shown? In the conversation between Adama and Lee, Adama say's that he's been going through Pegasus' logs and he can't find much wrong from a military standpoint. Isn't the military supposed to be protecting civilians? Adama had considered some stripping of his own (this sounds nice), but he couldn't because he had the president in his face (hmmm, I'm not really sure that what I mean by this sentence is coming across).

Adama comes aboard Pegasus for this mission. He specifically tells Lee he's in charge. When they lose contact with the team on the basestar, Lee decides to nuke it. Adama cuts in, he's not prepared to sacrifice any lives yet. So much for being in charge Lee... A bit later, there's a tough call to make, and daddy tells him 'this is your team, you make the call'. I'm not a big Lee fan, but I didn't think he was being treated fairly here.

It would have been interesting if the basestar had jumped away, than there could have been three factions at the eye of jupiter searching for earth. Also, I thought the ending of Kendra Shaw was a cliché, I personally thought it was a shame because she fit well in the regular cast. It was really awesome to get a backstory on Cain though.

All in all, I think Razor is a great homage to TOS. It was fun to see the 'old fashioned' cylon models and hear them say ' by your command'. And did Starbuck say 'Ain't it great when a plan comes together?' Was that an A-team reference? Or am I reading too much into this?

The Z is for Zarek...

2010-03-06T12:18:46Z

After making one innocent comment about Helena, calebar77 ditched me with a Z. I couldn't come up with many things I love with a Z in english at first, so I picked up my english to dutch dictionary. It turns out there is less than one page of english words with a Z! *feeling a bit screwed here* Compare that with the dutch section, where there are 27 pages, it would be a much easier task.

Comment and I'll give you a letter, then you have to list ten people/places/things you love that begin with that letter. Afterwards, post it on your journal and fill out letters of your own.

I will only give you a letter if you specifically request one in your comment.

I seriously contemplated loving Zarek and zebra's but it's just not happening... Here goes.

1) zoo
I love going to the zoo. As a child we went to the zoo in Emmen every year. Animals can be so endearing. They have the greatest penguin pavilion, you can sit there and watch them for hours (well if they didn't smell so bad, you could). It always amazes me how they can look so clumsy while on land and look so elegant while swimming.

2) Zanzibar
Lovely island for the coast of Tanzania where I spend my honeymoon.

3) Zeus
Aka William Adama, need I say more?

4) Zandvoort aan Zee
This is the closest beach to Amsterdam. With the train you're there within 30 minutes. In summer it's totally packed. I love it and hate it at the same time.

5) zombi's
Ever since I've seen the movie Shaun of the dead I have this love for zombies. This love only increased after reading an A/R fic about zombie fighting on Cloud Nine (I read it over on SI but I really can't remember the title or the author, but I'm quite certain most people on my flist will know exactly what I'm talking about it was awesome!). Just finished reading 'Pride, prejudice and zombies', nothing too great, but entertaining none the less.

6) empress Zoe
Zoe had a life of intrigue, murder and marriage. She was a virgin until her fifty's when she married her first husband. She allegedly murdered her husband to marry teenager Michael, with whom she fell madly in love. After Michael died (under suspicious circumstances) she married for the third time. She's definitely the most interesting woman from byzantine history.

7) zoning out
What is better than taking that moment for yourselves.

8) zodiac
My ex-boyfriend had this zodiac boat with which we would go water skiing all the time. The ex-boyfriend was not so awesome, but the boat certainly was.

9) Zoolander
Ok, stretching it a bit since I've ran out of things I love. I went to see this movie in the theater because my friend wanted to see it. She tolerates my sci-fi love and went to see star trek movies with me, so this was the least I could do. It's not my genre at all, but it was hilarious and I really liked it.

10) Zyrtec
I own a cat and since some relatives and friends are allergic, I always keep this in my medicine cabinet. It usually works really fast, and although I have never needed any of it for myself, I always have it in the house.