Finally I had my ten days off !

But : what to do and where to go during those ten days ?

After looking around quite a bit, we stumbled upon this website. I must admit I was a bit hesitant at first. I mean : visiting a zoo can be quite fun but spending an entire midweek there ? How many times can you look at the same animal without getting bored after a while ?

Well, I can tell you I couldnt have been more wrong !

It’s been a long time since I’ve spent such a relaxed holiday. The concept of the zoo isnt that groundbreaking but the fact you can stay several days there, walk around amongst the animals (well, sort of at least) and get a private tour during which a guide explains the park’s intentions and talks about the projects they support, really raises an awareness and makes you feel committed to what is happening to the (wild) animals in the world nowadays. Or, as the park says itself : “To protect, we need to respect. To respect, we need to understand.“

Sadly enough we got several examples of people’s arrogance towards animals in the zoo itself : we witnessed several people (mostly kids) throwing rocks at animals, just to get their attention. I found it quite hallucinating to see how comfortable even grownups were with this.  But then again, when you think about all the harm people do towards animals or the hunting trips people spend fortunes on  just so they can hang a lion’s head on their wall, I guess it’s not really a big surprise.

But of course the Cerza zoo experience was most of all a relaxing, educational and wonderfull experience. We spent 5 days there, saw all the animals more than once, accompanied a member of the zoo while she fed the wolves and finally also had the private tour I talked about.

It’s definately an experience I’d recommend to anyone and I for one will surely go back there !

To get an impression of the animals we saw there, click here.

“A penny for your thoughts”.

A very often used expression people dont often use around me anymore because of another popular expression : “be carefull what you wish for, because you just might get it”. Once i start venting my thoughts, there is (usually) no stopping me.

You may think it’s weird that for someone who claims to have so many thoughts, only so few blogposts appear. There are several reasons for that : (a) lack of time (very lame, i know), (b) my thoughts are none of your business (a bit harsh but nevertheless true) and .. uhm .. well, i guess that’s it actually.

“I should/could blog about this” is a thought that frequently crossed my mind these past few weeks.  But then another question came to mind : “why would i” ? Why would I want people to read about things I’ve done or hear their opinion on my opinion ?

Friends hardly every read my blogposts since we talk in real life so why would I share all these things with strangers or people I “know” but never met  ?

Is it because there is more comfort in the anonimity of a stranger ?

Is it the comfort of being able to just walk or click away when people say something you don’t like ? The comfort of being able to mute people and cut off all contact and just continue elsewhere ?

Or have we all grown so lonely that we need to reach out to “the unknown”, just to get some feedback on our thoughts.

Or, is it our ego, that wants as much feedback, attention, followers and fanclubs as possible ?

I guess the real question is : does it really matter ?

It’s that time of the year again : people go on holiday, don’t know what to do with their pets so they just dump them by the side of the road.

Last weekend, one of my collegues found a 4-5 year old yellow labrador in a ditch (see pic above), barely moving, underfed and covered in mud. She took it to the vet to see if they could track down the owners via the microchip, only to notice there that the microchip had been manually removed (yes, you have every right to look shocked).
Since she already has three dogs, she can’t keep this one so she is looking to find the doggie a new home.

After hearing this story I promised to help her as much as I can. Since I already have a cat and a dog, I cant take the dog either.

But maybe one of you is looking for a dog or knows about someone who does ? If so, please let me know.

Help us to find this poor animal a new home !

Oh and as far as the owners are concerned … I hope they ************ (censored)

When I was (a lot) younger I was addicted to video games. Not the ones you play on a tv but the ones at a carnival. You know, the big machines that are lined up one next to another in dark, smelly place where all you could hear was the sound of metal coins being pushed into the machines or coming out of the money exchange automat, the “beep, beep, bling, GAME OVER”-noises, followed by a loud bang of someone hitting the machine with his or her fist. Oh, how I loved those places.

I would spend hours there or at least the amount of time my money would allow me. I would get so wrapped up in the games I was playing, I didnt notice I was burning the inside of my hand while trying to break my last record (in those days, they still had metal sticks without the black knob on top of it). I would spend all my money on one game, just so I could see how it would end (“continue ?” “Hell yeah !”). The end was never as good as the anticipation of it of course.

When I was about 17, I’d always spend one week at the seaside with my best friend. We stayed at my grandma’s who allowed us “to go out” every night until 12pm (yes, things surely were different then). My parents would give me some spending money so I could really enjoy my week there. That spending money was gone the first night : going out in a street where you have one “lunapark” next to another was too big of a temptation for me. My grandmother would then give my best friend some extra money but on one condition : she could not give me the money if I wanted to spend it on videogames.

After that I went to the university and I didnt really have that much time anymore to get or stay addicted to anything. But then .. I started working .. and I discovered : the internet. And boy, did my addiction-gene come back with a vengeance ! I would spend hours and hours on that computer. I became Belgacom’s most favorite customer (yes, connection went via the phone line, with the “prrr,tsshhh” sound). My internet-addiction became less each time I got into a relationship with someone so I could always rationalise it by saying that prooved I was not addicted to the net at all.

The only think I didnt count on, was that I’d end up in a relationship with a girl geek. It took me all I had not to jump into that geekyness with her right away. I tried to resist, I swear ! But slowly, my resistance started caving in : first, she convinced me to join Facebook. Then, I joined Twitter and not long after that Plurk (but quit that one meanwhile).

But of course, that was only micro-blogging. If I really wanted to be taken seriously (ahem), I had to start blogging. So finally, she created me this place where I could vent as much as I wanted to (as you can see, its not THAT much) so I then became a (mini/occasional) blogger.

Then, the attending of geek-related events started : plurbeque, BGGD (only attended once though, not surrendering right away ), the midwinter blogbecue, Twestival, ..

And then finally, last week I caved in all the way : I bought an iPhone ..

Now, I am online (or can be) 24/7

So I guess you could say that by now, I am slowly but surely being sucked into the geek vortex all the way. I tried to resist for over a year but as the Borg would say : “Resistance is futile”.

Nothing I can do but accept my fate I guess *kissing my iPhone*

I’ve been surfing the net for over 10 years now.

I’ve been chatting, getting information, doing my financial business and all the other basic stuff most people use the internet for.

Since one year I’ve tentively started discovering the world of social networks and about two months ago I started blogging on and off.

As a rookie entering the big, unknown world of blogging and microblogging, I didnt really know what to expect.

I guess I assumed I’d be meeting  open-minded people, who were feirce believers of “freedom of speech”, who firmly believed that the internet is a  place where you are intitled to express your opinion, as long as it was respectfull.

I guess I assumed I’d end up in a place where you could speak your mind without having your head being bitten off, something that had happened to me quite often in the cruel, vicious chat-world.

But during this last year, I’ve been very often surprised about certain reactions in this world. People were liked until they said something the others didnt like, something they didnt agree with or, god forbid, wrote an article in which they dared to question certain things about this world.

So I started thinking (yes, it happens sometimes). And then realised I had all the wrong expectations from the beginning. I mean, why would the world of social networks and (micro)blogging be any different from the chat world or even the real world ?

No matter which world you spend your time in, you will always be confronted with people, who may or may not agree with what you are saying, or who may even get offended by your points of view. People with feelings, certain experiences (good or bad) and a temperament.

The only downside I see with the “virtual” world is that you risk being misunderstood, because no one can hear intonation, or see the expression on someone’s face (then again, in certain situations that may be considered a plus .. )

I guess what I’m trying to say is that maybe the interaction between people isnt that different after all, whether or not we hide behind a screen.

And I’ll try to keep that in mind next time someone bites my head off. Or tries to at least

*SPOILER ALERT* This blog is about a movie I went to see tonight, “The day the earth stood still”. If you still wanna go see it, then dont read this blog. If you think your time is precious and you dont want to waste two hours of your life and 8,5€ then do continue reading.

So tonight I went to see the remake, with Keanu Reeves. I hadnt read anything about the movie before I went to see it, which was a mistake I will NEVER make again from now on.

The movie started out rather promising with suspense and some special effects. The subject of the movie became very clear very quickly : aliens invading the world to save it from mankind who’s destroying it. “Ah well”, I thought, ” its been a while since I’ve seen an action packed, visually stunning movie about aliens that also carries a message. This can be good”.

Boy, was i wrong.

Keanu Reeves acts like a lobotomized android, which is a good thing I guess since he’s playing an alien but it’s kinda getting on your nerves after a while (I mean, I did like Nemo in the Matrix but there’s a limit to the amount of movies I want to see this character in). Sadly enough, all the other actors “act” the same way (Kathy Bates gives an entirely new meaning to “Misery”). Instead of using this medium to get the message across (we’re ruining this planet and we should change before everything is extinguished, including ourselves), the entire movie is about zombie-like Keanu (I’m sure his statue at Madame Tussaud’s looks more alive) determined mankind cannot change and therefore must be destroyed, running from the US army (being its usual self and just shooting and launching bombs without having a clue what they are fighting against) together with Jennifer Connelly, who’s playing a bambi-eyed scientist (I have serious suspicions they copy pasted some of her scenes from “the Hulk” into this movie) trying to convince him otherwise. Now as if that isnt enough, next to trying to save mankind on her own, poor Jenny is also struggling to win the acceptance and love of her black stepson (how PC !) whose father had died a year before. Talk about a full plate !

But well, turns out the mushy stepmom-story actually does have a purpose, other than making me roll my eyes so much they were almost popping into the back of my head. Because its not the US army’s military “force” or Bambi Jenny’s pleading that makes the alien change his mind. Nooooo, its actually stepmom and stepson falling into eachothers arms, crying on top of the dead father’s military grave that makes the alien utter these words of wisdom : “At the abyss, they do change”.

After which he walks into the globe (the new age-version of the space-ship in the original movie), ends the destruction of the earth and takes off.

Which made me utter these words of wisdom : “OH GIMME A BREAK !!”

I can describe this movie with one word : “yawn”

All lesbian stereotypes crammed into 4 mins – hilarious !

Tomorrow she’ll be back, with her big brown eyes and her innocent smile.

After all these months, she’s almost become a stranger to me. Or what a couple of months of silence can do ..

I’ll be glad to see her again but sad at the same time, because by the time the familiar closeness will be back, it will be time for her to leave again.

And all i can do from then on, is wait .. wait until I get to see her again.

And I who thought I’d seen it all when it comes to Sarah.

When watching this video, I thought I was watching some reenactment of a Southpark episode.

Sadly enough, it seems to be real.

I honestly didnt know whether to be laughing my head off or be terribly upset but I guess thats the way most people react towards her.

You be the judge (and again : not for sensitive souls or animal lovers – animal carnage involved)

Click here