Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

 I used to have an active blog. Started it in 2008, deleted a number of posts, posted more in 2009 and kept going. Posted photos and book reviews, wrote about the stories I was writing at the time, gave my opinion on what was going on in the world... Earlier this year I took the blog offline. Somehow I felt like I needed a change. Needed something different. Needed all parts of my life to be different. A lot has changed in my life in the past two-ish years. I was forced to grow up, if I can use those words even though I've been an adult for quite a few years already. I was forced to change, despite not being ready for change at all. When you don't choose change but are forced to deal with it because that's just the way life works, it can be really hard to accept the changes and the 'new normal'. Sometimes though, when life gives you an opportunity for change, you don't realise how important that opportunity is, how vital it was that you change, until you've ...

I know, I know... It's been around for quite some time and I'm only discovering it now... I'm late to the party! But... That doesn't mean I can't gush about it! Retro Phase Shift is a science fiction blog with lots of posts about (just to name a few shows) Doctor Who, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, Defiance, Babylon 5 and Torchwood. Just reading the names of some of my favourite shows and knowing that others enjoy them too, makes me happy. Yes, really. (Is this a good moment to insert an "oh, the feels" comment? No? Ah, okay...) Reading some of the posts on this blog is even better than just reading about the blog's existence. Take for instance 4 Good Entry Points to Big Franchises - Friday Four which lists good episodes for first-time viewers watching Stargate, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who. Seeing these are all shows I watch(ed) and enjoy, this post makes me happy. I may not agree with all the choices for first episo...

The past few weeks and months, I've been spending a lot of time on my blog and on Twitter. Reading Tweets, reTweeting them, posting photos and links to articles I'd read online, sharing some of my views and opinions with the world. I use my blog to share photos and use Twitter to read and post about what's going on in the world. Oh, and I use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends! Of course I also use email to stay updated on current events and to keep in touch with family and friends, however I use social media more. Until I stopped doing so for a few days. Last week, I decided to take a break from the world of Twitter, blogging and Facebook. Partly because I've been playing Grand Theft Auto V on the PlayStation - it's addictive, that game! - and partly because I wanted to spend more time reading books than posting and sharing on social media. And also, because spending so much time online doesn't always feel 'right' any more. I'm not th...

Dear Reader,  This is a bit of an angry rant.  Please read at your own discretion.  Dear Google, I use your services. Well, I use Google Search, Gmail, Blogger and Translate. Most of your other so-called services I just complain about. Or actively avoid, as in the case of YouTube. You see, dear Google, I am liking you less and less. We became close friends some ten years ago -- our 'ten year anniversary' is coming up... Will you congratulate me and tell me you love being friends with me? Of course not. At most you'll hassle me about buying something, spending my money on something, installing something that will allow you to better track my online movement or... No, wait. Let me start over. What will happen is this: In your quest to learn more about me, who I am and how I behave, you will only collect more information that gets passed on to more parties wanting to use that information to send me advertising you or they think I might like, send me offers to s...

I've had a list of links to websites of favourite authors up on my blog for some time now. A list of favourite television series as well. Yet what I realised today is that I don't have any links up to websites / pages of artists and photographers whose work I enjoy. Read an article today about monuments in former Yugoslavia and was amazed by the photos - absolutely loved some of the works! Photography is about more than the subject of course, however when the composition of the photo blows one away just as much as (or perhaps just as far as?) the stunning image itself does, you know you've found a winner. I wanted to share my enthusiasm, wanted to tell others how much I enjoyed the photos. Yet writing a simple blog post didn't quite feel like enough. I wanted to link to this photographer's website, to have that link up on my blog for all to see. Not just when reading a particular post, but always, all the time. So, I'm adding a new list to the sidebar on th...

Posts are reappearing on my blog! Finally! 'Coz I've missed blogging! It's been a few months since I took all my blog-posts offline. I wanted to re-evaluate my online presence, to re-think what information I present to others online and to go over all posts with a fine tooth-comb. As I work through more blog posts I'll put more back online and hopefully get writing on some new ones too!

Dear Readers, Blog posts have temporarily disappeared while I work out what will happen with this blog. Thank you for your patience.

I've never been one of the "popular girls". I'm also not at all someone who seeks fame or fortune. I never wanted to be class president or Miss Something-or-Other. Never wanted my photo in the newsletter or to be "famous one day". I'm happy being in the background, doing a great job supporting those whose face is in the newsletter and whose name is above the door. While I love taking photos, I have no interest in being the subject of them myself. I want to be appreciated for what I do and what I contribute, not for my familiar face or the power of my name. I want my work and my actions to speak for me! Having a blog, a Facebook page and an Instagram account (Oh, and Goodreads and Twitter and who knows what else!) feels strange and natural at the same time. Strange because even though I don't sign my post with my real name or have a mugshot on display, I am putting a lot of information about myself online for anyone to read and view, and for anyone ...

I'm an avid photographer and love taking photos of pretty much everything that grabs my attention. I also love sharing what I see with other people. Transferring what I see to a picture that shows that same image is always a challenge. Taking the photo itself is not the challenging part. Anyone can point a camera at something and click a button to take a photo. Nimavenl on Instagram For me, the challenge is to share what I see, feel and think when I see something, with other people. I want those people to be able to see, feel and think those same things. Be that because they see, feel and think those things themselves or because they look at the photograph I took and are able to tell what I saw, felt and thought when I took the photo. They say one photograph can beat a thousand words. My mission is to be the one who takes that one photo! Every mission has a beginning and every journey has a very first step. Check out my first steps on my way to one day becoming a life-cha...

I've been busy. Both in real-life and in the online world. How busy I've been online over the years shows itself in the amazing amount of emails I receive about Friend Requests, New Posts, Great Offers, New Games and more. The thing is - these aren't spam emails, they're newsletters / updates from websites and social networking sites I've subscribed to over the years. So, I've started a huge clean-up action. I plan to keep lots of online community subscriptions - Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Goodreads, Youtube and Google are the keepers, off the top of my head. Thing is, these are websites / communities I actually use. Some of the ones I no longer use are Hyves, Yahoo, Bebo, MySpace, and several others I can't even remember the names of, just that I un-subscribed from them yesterday. One inspiration for doing this was Googling my name and coming up with a whole list of hits that weren't about me but someone with my exact same name. Not that strange...

I keep promising myself that I'll write more blog posts. Really, I do. Actually intend to write, and even think of stuff to write about. Thing is, when I'm not working, eating, sporting, playing Scrabble and Restaurant City on Facebook or spending time with friends and family, I'm asleep. Yes - really. Turns out working full-time again is really amazing, however it also means I suddenly have about 50ish hours less a week to just blah and think of crazy stuff to write about. I pretty much always want stuff I write to be profound and meaningful and all "I'm making a statement here"-ish, and when my writing is not like that it tends to be filled with really long sentences, and lots of "so yeah"s and expressions like that. The way this post is - if you know what I mean!  The words don't flow as easily as they used to. Might be 'coz I don't speak English on a daily basis anymore. Might be 'coz I think in Dutch when I'm at work...

I've been looking for a job for about a month now. Haven't replied to every ad or anything like that; I'm simply applying for jobs that look interesting and feel like they suit me and I'd suit them. Perhaps later on in the game I'll start applying for just about anything, but right now I'm still being picky. I may not have finished Uni, however I am University educated and have half a Bachelor degree - my thinking is at University level, I write good essays, my research skills are ace and I learn quickly. I'd like a job that involves using my brain. I've done cleaning jobs and supermarket jobs and I really enjoyed them, however now I'm looking for a different challenge. So today I applied for a job. I apply for one or two a week it seems - Yup I did say I'm picky. The funniest thing though was when the website had processed my application and it asked me if I'd like to Tweet about applying for a job. Now I may have a blog and a Twitt...

I'm annoyed at Blogger. Just slightly, mind you. I'd like to center the title of this blog. However, no matter what I try, the only way I can find to do so is to add the center tag to my blog title in the editor. Which means that my blog's title is "<" center ">" Random Ramblings "<" / center ">", which just doesn't quite do it for me. I can change the blog description field and center that text, however getting the title in the center... nope. Tried messing around with the html, however as I don't know enough about how *not* to screw everything up, I haven't found the solution yet. Will keep searching and hopefully figure out how to change the blog to my liking without screwing any other page elements up. In the meantime - if anyone knows exactly where to insert a title tag into the html without the tag showing up in the actual title, please help me out here!

So I've been playing around with the new blog editor thingie that Blogger's come up with. Love it. Well, I mostly do. The one thing that I'm still confused about is how to upload my OWN background image. I'm sure I just overlooked the option and will find it next time I look... I'm a photographer. Not by any means a professional one and perhaps not even a very good one, however I *am* one. I love trying to capture on camera the beauty that is the world around me and sharing it with others. I don't like to edit or Photoshop my photos much and usually don't change them other than cropping a bit here and there. The pictures I post on my blog as well as my display picture were taken by me, and I love them the way they are, and think they too are worthy of serving as a background picture for a blog - or at the very least for my own blog. [UPDATE: I've figured it out! Turns out it was right where I should have expected it to be...]  That said, I'...

I caved - Finally. Signed up for my very own Twitter account yesterday. As of right now I'm following 114 people and am being followed by 5 people. Random. Especially as I don't even know these 5 people. Still - it's kinda cool in a slightly strange way  :D I think I'll link my Twitter and my Blog, however still have to figure out how to do that exactly. While I do that - head on over to Youtube and enjoy this video showing how much we love OUR BOYS and how proud we are of them and their amazing achievement!!!! http://bit.ly/9b0Myf This is why I love being Dutch !!!

I've got a feeling this is going to be another random ramble. There have been goings-on in the world at large and in my personal world that I've wanted to write about. The plane crash of a great number of Poland's officials for instance. The ash cloud hanging over Europe after a volcano erupted in Iceland. People I talk to. Things I'm reading about.  In the end, I didn't write about any of these things. They mattered, I followed the news, read more about things that interested me, however didn't feel I had enough to say about any of these things to write an opinion piece about them. A general recap definitely, however a well-researched and thought-through story, argument, anything - no. Life is going on. It's going well. I'm doing well. Coming to terms with several things, learning new things about myself, learning new things about life. I'm also starting to realise that some people I thought of as good friends maybe aren't such good f...

I've had the first verse of Simple Plan's "Welcome to my Life" as the description at the top of my blog for some time now. The lyrics fit me, somehow, sometimes. They describe someone feeling lost and alone and unsure of who they are and what their place is in the world. The lyrics describe how I feel sometimes. They are also more than I am, and less than I am as well. I'm not always down or depressed, I'm not always lost and searching. Certainly not. There are times when I know exactly how I feel and why, what I want and how to go about achieving my goals. There are times I'm sad and times I'm happy, times I know I'm on the right track and other times when I feel like I've completely lost the plot and the meaning of life seems to elude me. Don't we all have times like that?! Do you ever feel like breaking down / Do you ever feel out of place / Like somehow you just don't belong / And no one understands you / Do you ever wanna run a...

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...

As I'm writing this I'm 25 years old. I'm in New Zealand. It's Saturday evening. Normally, I'd be spending quality time with friends - it being the weekend and all! Today, and for the last few days, I've been sick. And so I've stayed home. I've spent a large part of the time I’ve been sick in front of my laptop. I checked out the trailer for Twilight : New Moon, and I have to say - I can't wait !!!!! Really should re-read the books though before the new movie comes out in November. I read them one after the other - before work, during my lunch breaks, after work, while having dinner - I loved the story and couldn't get enough of it. I’ve slept in. Watched dvds. Friends have come by. I’ve had dinner with my mother. I also received a letter in the mail from work. My last pay-slip and an official letter saying I'd worked there for the past 2,5 years. You see, last week was my last week there. I'm leaving the city I've lived in fo...

I've started and deleted lots of blogs. Have even had them for a few weeks or months sometimes. I've also always ended up deleting them. I always end up wondering if I'm putting too much personal information online. I want to write about stuff that matters to me, but how to do that without giving potential stalkers or whatevers too much information is something I haven't quite figured out. Do I mention what I do for a job? The country I live in? The city? My friends? My family? Where I'm from? What's going on in my life? How much information is too much? I want people who take the time to read this to enjoy reading what I write. I want to put enough of myself in my writing that I can give people an insight into my mind, into my life. I want to be able to share my thoughts and feelings, to be able to vent when I need to, to let off some steam so to speak.  I enjoy writing, enjoy sharing stories, enjoy giving my opinion - and yes, I'm an opinion...