Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

Watched the news earlier and saw the report on the bombings in the Moscow subway. Or well, bombings - suicide missions actually. Thirty-eight people killed and many wounded because two women felt the need to make a point. And what was the point about? It seems about the exact same thing so many bombings and attacks around the world have been about: terrorists trying to what, prove a point, scare the world, get support for their cause? The one thing I just really don't get here is WHY people, human beings just like you and I, feel the need to kill other human beings, innocent ones at that, to help further their cause. From what I've read on newspaper websites so far no-one has claimed responsibility for this latest attack yet, however apparently Russian authorities believe there is evidence that these attacks were commited by people from the North Caucasus region. According to CNN.com, "Our preliminary assessment is that this act of terror was committed by a terroris...

While checking some information online that had been going through my head for most of the morning, I came across a reference to the TV programme "The Big Bang Theory". I'd seen a few episodes of it now and then, however never really got into watching it regularly. I'd been thinking about a friend of a friend of a friend who has a child with hearing problems. I'd never met the child and only ever met his mother twice, however we talked about the hearing problems when we met due to my background in (studying) Early Childhood Education. We talked about possible causes both physical and psychological and she then went on with her life and I with mine. It's a while ago by now, however something I read recently reminded me of this woman and her child. Not knowing much about either the mother or the son and having no idea as to whether the hearing problems were physical or psychological, we only discussed general options. I decided that to satisfy my curiosi...

I'm interested in what makes people tick. What moves people to do what they do, why they act a certain way, what the reasons are behind certain behaviours. I study and learn about things like sociology, anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, counselling and religions to help me further my understanding and learn more about these topics. This is organised study, going out to learn about a specific topic at a certain time - deciding to go out and learn about something that interests me. Last night I ended up watching a program on TV about teenage girls who are anorexic, so thin that their bodies can become permanently damaged. While in no way something I aspire to, it was very interesting to watch and fits right in with many other things that I find interesting and enjoy learning about. The program featured girls as young as fourteen or even eleven with a personal target weight of under 30 kilos wearing clothes suited for children much younger than they are. Girls whose periods ha...

So, having decided to start writing a new blog, I need to figure out what to write about. Back in Uni I learnt this technique called "Mind Mapping". Basically you get one central idea or topic and you just write down everything to do with it that comes into your head. So, my topic today is My Interests. I'm going to write some of them down and hopefully from there figure out stuff to actually write about. Some of my Interests in no particular order: Psychology, Psychiatry, Anthropology, Sociology, Photography, Gaming, Religions, Languages, History, Geography, Politics, Ecology, Horses, Horse Riding, Sport, Fitness, Kickboxing, Self Defense, Self Development, Cultures, Music, Bowling, Soccer/Football, Rugby, Biking, Walking, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Israel, Writing, Reading, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Star Trek, Grey´s Anatomy, NCIS, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe, Lost, Heroes, X-Men, Laurell K. Hamilton, Traci Harding, Anne Bishop, Kathy Reichs, Linda Fai...

I've been thinking about starting a new blog. I have all these ideas about what kinds of posts I want on that blog. Posts that share my view of life and of the world, posts that explore things that interest me - people, places, history, religion, psychology, ecology, photography... And then I got thinking - why a new blog? Why not just this one? I've written posts on here and deleted them, started over a few times. And I keep coming back to wondering how much information to share, what to write about, whether to write about stuff happening to me or out there in the world, about my hopes and dreams or about the hopes and dreams of others. So, I figured the other day - this is MY blog, right?! It's my opportunity to share MY views on MY interests. So, not 10 or 20 new blogs where I write about one specific topic. Just this blog that covers all the topics that I care about, find interesting, want to learn more about. People may read my views, opinions, jokes (not that...