♫♫♪ Squirrelly Wrath ♪♫♪

I would like to thank all the wonderful people that commented on my last post. It meant a great deal to me and I really needed those hugs. I know some of you are going to some hard times yourselves, so if you ever need to talk or just need a hug, please let me know.

My posting hasn’t been very regular during the last couple of months. Mostly because nothing’s been happening. I’ve passed all my subjects, finished all my papers and should be well underway in my final essay. But, I’m not. Somehow I can’t seem to urge myself to start working on it. Somehow I always find something else to do. So I spend days behind the computer and in front of the TV wasting my time. I know I’m wasting precious time, but I’m still unable to push myself into starting on my essay. It’s weird. I guess it’s some kind of fear of failure. Just the idea that this is the last obstacle in the way of finishing my study scares me. But, I’ll get over it eventually. Sooner or later…

I’d like to leave you all with some good stuff I found while wasting my time on the internet:

The first episode of Merry Melony by Eric Drobile, a new animated series that is absolutely amazing and very promising. It’s weird, it’s freaky, it’s bizarre. So go watch it!

Xombie, the animated series by James Farr about…. zombies! Five chapters have already been finished, so you have some catching up to do!

And of course:

Feeling hurt and misunderstood

My parents and brother are driving me insane. They have been for some time but it’s getting harder and harder to endure. My parents distinguish between what is allowed for me and what is allowed for them. They criticize me and everything I do all the time. But I’m not allowed to defend myself against unfounded criticism. I’m not allowed to criticize them or my brother either. Whenever I say anything about their behaviour I’m told to keep my mouth shut and keep my criticism to myself.

They differentiate between my brother and me as well. He can ridicule me as much as he wants while my parents are in the same room without them doing anything about it. They just let him and keep quit. But when I say to him in response that he should grow up, or that’s he’s acting extremely mature for his age they’re like: “Hilde, stop that!” Yesterday we were having dinner and my brother said something about a subject that I knew wasn’t correct. So I told him that he was wrong and explained to him why. “How do you know?! You always seem to know everything better! You’re so arrogant!” When I tried to reply my parents told me not to. I became angry and half asked, half shouted why I wasn’t even allowed to say anything in return to defend myself. My mother replied: “Because you are arrogant.”

At that point I went upstairs to my room and just cried. And than of course I felt stupid for crying and letting them get to me. I’ve been spending way too much time in my room crying lately anyway. They are getting to me and the things they say hurt, but they don’t seem to care. Which makes it even worse.

They don’t seem to understand that being arrogant is not the same as actually knowing better about a subject. I do not think I’m superior to them or that my opinion is more important than theirs. I just enjoy having knowledge about various subjects, so sometimes I actually do know things better because I’m better informed. They mistake it for arrogance. Especially my brother, who is ignorant about many things and because of that, can say the most idiotic things. The only way he seems to be able to deal with his own ignorance and lack of knowledge is to attack me. He’s a very selfish human being who will never acknowledge he might have some blame in a certain situation, so I can understand his actions and his behaviour. I can not understand my parents’ though.

I’m clinging to the fact that in a year’s time I will have moved out and left all this crap behind. Sometimes I just wish it was a year later already...

Things to look forward to

I just saw the covers of the upcoming Harry Potter (HP and the Half-Blood Prince) on this website with all the latest news on HP6. The UK Adult Edition-cover looks very promising. Advanced Potion making on the cover means more Snape and possibly more Occlumency lessons. That’s enough to get me excited about the 16th of July.

I’m also excited about the upcoming movie Mirrormask, from the creative minds of Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean and the Jim Henson Company. I love them all, so a collaboration between the three should be good and is definitely something to look forward to. I just watched the trailer on the Mirrormask website and I like it! It’s weird, freaky and very much in the style of Dave McKean’s artwork. It’s going to be a very unique movie that’s very different from what we’ve seen before. Hopefully the movie will appear in a cinema around here, because I’d love to see it on the big screen.

The third thing I’m excited about is the upcoming Elf Fantasy Fair (23rd and 24th of April). Terry Pratchett, who is one of my favourite writers, is one of the guests. That’s reason enough for me to want to go. John Howe, Ted Nasmith, Andy Serkis, Lawrence Makoare and all the other guests are just very nice additions. Faun is also performing on the Fair, which again is a major plus. I would definitely love to go, but who’s going with me??? I don’t exactly feel like going on my own…

I’ve also been keeping up with the line-up of the various music festivals that are taking place later this year (through Festival Info). I went to Rock Werchter last year, but this year the line-up doesn’t really appeal to me. Most line-ups are a bit disappointing this year. The only two festivals that are interesting (to me) this year are Summer Darkness (12/13/14 August) and M’era Luna (13/14 August). The line-ups for these two festivals aren’t even complete, but they are very promising (Hocico, VNV Nation, Faun, Combichrist, Suicide Commando, The Azoic). Too bad they’re being held during the same weekend. Anyone going as well??

So, more than enough things to look forward to!

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."

I found this reading/book-stick on some random blog while using the ‘next blog’-button and as an enormous book freak I couldn’t resist.

You're stuck inside Farenheit 451, which book do you want to be? (For those of you who haven't read it, the writer posits a society in which people surround themselves with walls of empty, contentless media which keep them from ever having to think or feel. Any books that are found are burned. But booklovers cannot be discouraged that easily. They keep books alive by each committing one or more books to memory in entirety. So long as they live, no society is powerful enough to destroy the books that live inside them. If you lived in such a society, which book or books would you choose to become?)
I find this a rather difficult question, because I’d want to save a book that means something. But in a sense, all books mean something to someone. For myself (being selfish here), I would save Pride & Prejudice, because it’s a book that gives us (read: us=women) hope there may actually be a decent man for us out there somewhere. It sounds cheesy, but this book gives me hope.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Sure! Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. *sigh* When I think about it, Jane Austen has made up several very interesting characters, because there’s also Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility and Mr. Knightley from Emma. I was probably born in the wrong era or something. But the most intriguing character ever -in my humble opinion- is Severus Snape from the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I’m quit obsessed with the Snape character actually, but as a regular visitor of this blog you’ve probably already noticed. And of course it also helps that the characters I’ve mentioned are all played by very handsome men in the respective movies or series. Jeremy Northam. Colin Firth. Alan Rickman. Woei!

Sorry, I got a bit carried away...

This is going to be the new Darcy in the upcoming movie by the way. He hasn’t read the book. Case closed as far as I'm concerned.

The last book you bought is:
Barry Trotter and the Unnecessary Sequel by Michael Gerber. It’s a fascinating, but at the same time extremely dumb and silly parody of Harry Potter. The main characters are very twisted versions of Harry and co. and that’s what makes it incredibly funny to read. And the fact that students are dying by the bushes

The last book you read (finished):
Stupid White Men by Michael Moore. An absolute must read. Key-words: interesting, funny, sarcastic, ironic and political.

What are you currently reading?
Maskerade by Terry Pratchett. The more books I read written by Pratchett the more I come to the conclusion he’s an absolute genius. His books are exciting, compelling and have an hilarious profundity. His stories aren’t merely fantasy, but are packed with humour, wit and irony. Furthermore, his books keep getting better and never become monotonous or boring.

Five books you would take to a deserted island.
First of all, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien of course. That should keep me busy for quit some time and I could read it over and over again. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen is coming along too, because the story and the characters will always remain enjoyable to read. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to have something to laugh about. And two books that have been on my to-read-list for quit some while: The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
To everyone who enjoys reading and books as much as I do (that’s more than 3 people as far as I know) and finds the questions interesting enough to answer.

A history lesson

Did you know that we, the Dutch, killed Anne Frank because we felt she was a lesser being? No?? Well, neither did I until recently. I was always taught Anne Frank died in a concentration camp set up by the Nazis lead by Adolf Hitler, together with millions of other Jews from European countries that were conquered by the Germans. But apparently, all the history books are wrong and we, the Dutch, killed Anne Frank.

That’s what the American television station FoxNews is telling their viewers. You can read the column that started it all here. After reading this column and seeing the reports they showed on TV I could only laugh. But after that initial reaction had subsided I became very angry. The average American probably doesn’t know that much about the Netherlands, so when FoxNews or other media tell them these lies they do not know better and will assume it is the truth. I find it very offensive to write such a story when the ‘facts’ you use are wrong and nothing more than preconceptions.

They used this “fact” about Anne Frank in a story about a hospital in Groningen (a Dutch city) that is euthanizing babies if they don’t have enough fingers… (this may not become very apparent from the column, but the rest of the reports have emphasized this particular point)

…Could someone please tell me who is making up this bullshit?? Of course they’re not euthanizing babies that don’t have enough fingers! Come on! When babies are extremely sick and have no chance of survival whatsoever the doctors, together with the child’s parents, may decide to make sure the baby doesn’t suffer anymore and let her/him die mercifully. This happens very rarely, but euthanasia on babies does indeed happen. I can understand why people would be against mercy killing, but why tell this ridiculous story about killing babies that don’t have enough fingers?? If you’re against mercy killing, just explain why you have this position with decent arguments. Don’t make up some way over-the-top story to make sure you don’t have to explain your position. Furthermore, I find it terribly funny that the right-wing media in America is making all this fuss about euthanasia in the Netherlands while at the Oscars two movies (Million Dollar Baby & Mar Adentro) featuring euthanasia were awarded.

We’re just about the only country in the world where euthanasia is allowed under very strict rules (and I do mean very strict rules). We as a people and the Dutch doctors in particular don’t take the subject lightly. There has been a long debate about the subject and I’m very glad our government has had the courage to legalize it. I’m convinced that more countries will follow in the nearby future. I’m an advocate of the freedom to choose whether you wish to live or die. I understand the babies themselves can’t make that choice. This means the responsibility for the baby lies with the parents. Parents make choices for their young children all the time, so the decision to end the misery of a terminally ill baby is also theirs. It’s a terrible choice to make, but at least they have the freedom to choose...