TV

Eurovision Song Contest 2016

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I love the Eurovision Song Contest. It’s a fabulous festival of music, weirdness, and sass. Now that they split it up in three parts, it’s also two extra fun times to watch, and live tweet 😀 So here’s a recap of some highlights from this week.

First Semi Final, Tuesday, May 10

Second Semi Final, Thursday, May 12

Final, Saturday, May 14

Merry December Gift Giving Holiday

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20151225_150117The holidays are upon us!

Nienke and I started our gift exchange on the 24th. I had gotten her a cardboard cutout of David Tennant as Doctor Who. I’d hidden it at my Parent’s and then sneaked out in the afternoon to get it. I constructed it at my parents, walked it over to our front door, placed it and rang the bell.

Nienke opened the door and it was hilarious seeing her reaction. Full of surprise and laughter.

I’d also made a felt adipose to go with it. I found a pattern online and over two or three days made this. The feet are slightly too long, but it does help him sit better.

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She gave me the blu ray of Mary Poppins, I love Mary Poppins! It’s one of my favourite musicals.

The rest of our gifts we exchanged the next day. I’d gotten Nienke a book of Ghost stories, a Supernatural mug, a small watch, guitar picks and chocolate sushi. She gave me a Supernatural book, a colouring book of cats, a box of chocolate and a Funko Pop of Anna from Frozen. She said one of the presents was still missing and that I would get that later. So I held back a present for her as well 😀

20151226_192157I love my prezzies: Anna fits perfectly with the Elsa I already have. I don’t have that many Supernatural books yet so more is always good, and the colouring book was already on my list.

The next day, Nienke was over at her parents, and my parents came over here for prezzies and dinner. I got Mom the new CD of Adele, Dad two nice animal prints and both of them some chocolate. They got me a nature documentary about the wild areas of the Netherlands, and a colouring book of the province.

We were going to eat raclette, so I pulled out the raclette set from the attic. I think the last time we used it was before I even moved out… So more than a decade at least. I plugged it in and we waited for it to get to temperature. But not two minutes later, the whole house went dark. A short.

Using my phone I made it over to the table to unplug the raclette. Then on to the cupboard to switch the circuit breakers back. When the lights were back on, I checked the raclette. It was really hot despite only being on for two minutes. It was quite obvious that the raclette was no longer safe for use.

We still needed to eat, so I piled the meats in an oven dish and placed that in the oven along with the veggies. In the end, the food was just as tasty like this. The desert was an ice cream cheese cake with caramel topping.
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’tis The Season

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…for decorating and other things related to the end-of-year holidays. I put up the winter trees. One on the small metal table and one in the corner. And, as is customary, I put an angel at the top 😀 The tree on the small table also houses the prezzies and the coffee table has its own little winter forest.

Today, Mom and I also wrote the holiday cards.
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Nerd Block: November

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Time for a new Nerd Block! Theme for this month is ‘Tis the Season. I didn’t really see the theme in the items, except for the shirt and the shot glass.

The first item that I saw when opening the box was a Titan vinyl figure of Sherlock. This is from the same brand as the Tenth Doctor and Spike figures from earlier boxes. I’m becoming a fan of these vinyls as the faces are a bit more detailed and each figure comes with a prop. In Sherlock’s case, a magnifying glass. Or maybe a slide for under a microscope.

Aother fantastic item is a Serenity ornament. A metallic painted model of the ship from Firefly, which is one of my favourite scifi shows.

Continuing with scifi, the next item is a Star Wars desktop calendar. I have no use for this and since 2016 is getting nearer, I don’t know if I can find someone to give this to in time.

Then, the shot glass. This is a plastic item and comes from The National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I’ve never seen that movie, nor do I want to. The shot glass is funny, though, so I’ll keep it for now. Maybe I can use it for laughs at my next birthday.

The shirt is a mash-up of Back to the Future and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I like the shirt, the graphic is pretty, the colour is nice. I’m not a big Back to the Future fan, but I do love The Nightmare Before Christmas.

On the bottom of the box I found an art print of Bill Murray and I love it. I’m a big fan of Murray and this is a very fine addition to my slowly growing collection of art prints.

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LootCrate: Time

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With the theme being Time, I couldn’t not get this box. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to the expectation. There were only four items in this box, which is really not enough. Maybe these items are higher value, but the box as a whole feels like a lesser value to me with so few items.

I love the sonic spork, using the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver for the handle. Also a hit is the Funko Pop of Dr. Emmet Brown from Back to the Future. I don’t know much about that franchise. I am pretty sure I’ve seen all of the first movie at some point, and parts of the other two, but most of my knowledge of it is from pop culture memes. So this Pop wasn’t on my wishlist or anything, but he looks awesome and I’ve been wanting another general scifi Pop to go with Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet).

Then there was a miniature replica hooverboard from Back to the Future. It looks nice, and comes in a pretty box, but that’s about it for me. This will be going in the gift box, as will probably the t-shirt. It’s from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Again one of those movies I think I’ve seen, but not sure. Plus the shirt is kinda tight compared to the one that was in the Fantasy Crate.

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Birds & Butterflies

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This afternoon I went to see my cousin’s new baby together with Mom and my Aunt.  She a very cute baby and so far, as I understand from the new parents, a very easy baby. Let’s hope for them she stays that way.

I managed to finish the hanger yesterday, right on time 🙂 I’d been working on it over the last few nights while watching Mutant X and Andromeda. I forgot how bad Mutant X is, and how good Andromeda is.

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LootCrate: September

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LootCrate’s theme this month is Summon. That on its own wasn’t really enough to interest me. But then they teased about there being Blizzard items in the box. So I caved and got one. First thing I saw when opening the box, was a Pikachu hat. I’m not a huge Pokémon fan, but I did watch the cartoon a lot when I was a kid. So the hat is a hit, and it’s nice and warm, too. The next item was a gold coloured Homer Simpson as Buddha thing. This was a major miss. I don’t particulary like The Simpsons, and find this thing really just tacky.

Then came the Blizzard items. The first was a Hearthstone shaped stress ball. It fits nicely in my hand and I’m very pleased to have a real-life Hearthstone to match my in-game one in World of Warcraft. The second item was a Hearthstone coin with a code for three free card packs in the Hearthstone game. I don’t play that a lot, but it is a nice time kill in quiet moments. So free card packs are much appreciated then. The coin is of a solid metal with a nice feel.

Another really good item was a miniature version of Baby, the card driven by the Winchester brothers in Supernatural. I’d gotten Nienke one of these for Christmas last year and I’m really happy I have one for myself now, too.

Lastly, they included two summoning themed games. The first one a mobile game, with the ability to unlock extra content by scanning the LootCrate box. The second a card game of sorts. They included a booklet of cards for one player. Which means I will never play it, as I would need to find someone else who also got this LootCrate. Of course, I could copy the cards, but that looks bad and is too much effort for a game I’m not that interested in playing.

Overall, the Blizzard items, the car and the hat are fantastic and make up for the okay games and the tacky Homer. I am pleased I bought this box.

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Nerd Block: September

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This month’s theme was Hyperspace. There were only five items in the box as opposed to the six or seven in previous months which was a little bit disappointing.

I love the little springy USS Enterprise, even if it feels somewhat cheap. The plushie BB-8 looks fantastic. I like it’s feel and design, but I don’t know yet if I’ll keep it. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, I’ve seen the older movies once, a long time ago. I will be seeing the new movie once it’s out, so I’m keeping the plushie at least until then. Depending on what I think of the movie, and BB-8’s part in it, I’ll keep it or put it in the gift bin.

The Jurassic Galaxy art print is fantastic! It mashes Guardians of the Galaxy with Jurassic World with cameo appearances of Terminator and Star Wars. Beyond this print and the Doctor Who one from a previous box I’ve acquired some more art print or small poster stuff that I want to display. I haven’t quite figured out how I want to do that, though. but I am really excited about it.

The shirt this month is a Battlestar Galactica one combining the two versions of Cylons in a mash-up resembling a Daft Punk album cover. The last item was a Funko mystery box with a random Supernatural mini. I got Castiel, which I absolutely love! I am a bit puzzled though how Supernatural fits the theme.

Overall, I’m impressed with the individual items, but it did feel less as a whole with only five items of which only four fit the theme.

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Nerd Block: August

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The third Nerd Block of my initial three month subscription. This one had an eighties summer mixtape theme and was a bit of a let down for me. I like the metal lunchbox kinda thing. Don’t know yet what to use it for, but it is useful for me. I’m not big into Ghostbusters so the exterior doesn’t really mean a lot to me. I do like the industrial look of it. The Ghostbusters plushie is okay, I’ll put it in the box for potential gifts.

The Game of Thrones coasters are very pretty, but not all that useful. They’re made of pretty flimsy pressed paper kind of stuff. If you were to spill on it, they’re ruined.

Of course an eighties box needs something Rubik. The choice here is a stress Rubik’s Cube. I’m pretty meh about it. I never have (or had) much use for stress balls and the like. Like the plushie, it’ll go in the gift box.

Then there’s a book of postcards. Normally this would be right up my alley. Except they are hideous. Now these are hideous on purpose, but that doesn’t really make it any better. I have no idea what to do with these. Maybe I can send some of these via PostCrossing at some point.

The one thing I did really love was the shirt. It’s a Ghostbusters shirt, so again, it doesn’t specifically mean anything to me. But I love the colours, the design and I am a big Bill Murray fan. It’s definitely a hit in a mostly miss box.

I have decided to stop the three month stuff and go month by month now. I’m also thinking of trying a LootCrate here or there in between, depending on theme of each.

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Nerd Block: July

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This month’s theme was Humanity’s Last Hope. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with that, but when I opened the Block today I found all kinds of goodies I really like.

There was, once again, a vinyl figure included in the box. Funko Pop Vinyls are very popular at the moment, I have about fifteen or so of them, but I really like these Titan Vinyls also. They are the same size as Funko’s but their defining characteristic is their overall slightly triangular shape. I like that their faces have more detail and that each comes with a prop. Last month’s Doctor came with a sonic screwdriver and Spike here came with a mug.

Then there was a surprise pack containing a dangly Transformer figure. I’m not well versed in Transformers so I have no idea which one this is supposed to be, but I do like it. Of similar size to the Transformer is the key chain Iron Man from Funko.

The next item I didn’t know what it was until I unwrapped it and then it turned out to be a Ghostbusters wallet. It’s made of thick sort of paper so I don’t think it’s really suited to actual use. It’s a nice gimmick, though. It’s an item to go in my box of potential gifts. This was followed by a Mad Max comic, which will be fun to read as I really enjoyed the movie.

This month’s shirt is a Karate Kid shirt. I had to look it up to be sure about what it was. I’ve seen the movie but it has been a while so I couldn’t quite remember. I like the shirt, even though it’s not one of my fandoms, and will enjoy wearing it.

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