Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

No, this is not a review of The Power of One , a Bryce Courtenay book. Although I expect I'll be writing that review within a few years. Stay tuned while I write about music, Apple and Taylor Swift instead? Taylor Swift wrote an open letter to Apple on her website's blog - To Apple, Love Taylor - explaining why she doesn't like something they've chosen to do. Apple's new music streaming service will not be charging for music for three months (yay for users / customers), nor pay artists for the use of their music (not so yay for the artists). Swift explains why this is unfair to artists, writers and producers. "We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation." I like your thinking, Taylor Swift. The world responds by writing about Swift's letter / blog post. Apple is rich and has the money to pay artists , the world says. So let Apple pay the artists . In a world built on (and from, I think...

Oh boy. This sure made me laugh. Good evening. It's six o'clock and here's what we want you to think... #MSM pic.twitter.com/ZZtFWsrfLM — Olio Studios (@myolio) May 26, 2015

Een gewapende man drong even voor acht uur vanavond het gebouw van de Nederlandse publieke omroep binnen. Hij wilde zendtijd maar werd binnen een kwartier overmeesterd door de politie. Er zijn een paar minuten film opgenomen en naderhand uitgezonden waarop de man te zien en te horen is; ook de stem van een man die gegijzeld was, was te horen. De naam en profielfoto van de man staan al vermeld op social media, volgens de berichten gaat het om een verwarde jonge man. De komende dagen zullen vast meer duidelijkheid geven - ik ben benieuwd. Twitter Feed  #nosjournaal Ik heb vooral veel vragen over wat er gebeurd is en waarom. Werkt hij of spreekt hij voor anderen - voor een collectief van hackers, wellicht? Had de man hulp bij deze actie? Was hij ingehuurd door of verbonden met een of andere inlichtingendienst? Dat oortje dat hij had, was dat van hem zelf of had hij dat in het gebouw van de NOS opgepakt? Wat verwachtte hij precies te horen? Ik weet niet genoeg van wapens om te...

I'm so excited !!!!!!! Series 8 of Doctor Who is coming to television in less than two weeks !!! Source:  World tour launch event in Cardiff - Doctor Who Series 8 2014  - BBC One The BBC have released a new trailer for the upcoming Doctor Who episode Deep Breath. The first episode of series 8, Deep Breath is also the first proper episode to star the newest Doctor; Peter Capaldi. What I know from watching this video: We're visiting old friends and seeing some familiar faces, the special effects are mind-blowing, Peter Capaldi is A-MA-ZING and the Tardis gets a new look...  I like it! Deep Breath will air on the BBC on Saturday 23/08. Less than two weeks left to wait !!!

Today, totally out of the blue, I came across a review in the St. Louis Post - Dispatch for a new book by one of my favourite authors. The reviewer sounded like he enjoyed the book and explained a bit about the books in the process - always fun to read a review like that! I first picked up a book by Laurell K. Hamilton a few years ago after being introduced to her work by fellow fans of Anne Bishop's books. Enjoyed the first few books in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series a lot and by the time I'd read those, was hooked enough that I kept on reading as more books came out.  The Anita Blake books have taught me a lot and have helped me deal with real-life issues. The question " What would Anita say / do ?" crosses my mind several times a month even when not actively reading or re-reading the books. Anita Blake starts off as a tough as nails animator and vampire slayer - a professional who is good at her job, enjoys it and draws a lot of satisfaction from livin...

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...

There's always lots going on in the world, and thus also lots of things being reported about in the media. The President of the US, Barack Obama, announcing that Osama bin Laden had been killed, well, that was definitely a biggie. I'm still not sure I believe it, to be honest.

Jennifer Aniston is destructive to society? Oh come ON! Seriously?! Apparently she is, according to Fox News Commentator Bill O'Reilly. I've never heard of the guy, however reading this article about what he said on iVillage.com , I'm curious to see what else he comes up with! According to the article, Mr O'Reilly had a problem with remarks Aniston made while promoting her new comedy The Switch, in which she plays a single mother who gets pregnant through artificial insemination. What Jennifer said? Here goes... Earlier this week at an L.A. press conference, Aniston, 41, reportedly said, "Women are realizing it more and more, knowing that they don't have to settle with a man just to have that child....Times have changed....What is amazing is that we do have so many options these days, as opposed to our parents' days when you can't have children because you have waited too long." The Emmy-winning actress added, "The point of the movie ...

Very, very quick post after reading a news story about Lady Gaga... Apparently some narrow-minded people were protesting outside one of Lady Gaga's concerts about how she is very outspoken about gay rights, and LG sent a huge long message to her fans through Twitter basically saying to ignore the protesters and be glad to love instead of hate. "Don't waste your words, or feelings, no matter what you hear or see...   I wanted to make my fans aware of my views on how to approach, or rather not approach, these kinds of hate activists...   Be inspired to ignore their ignorant message, and feel gratitude in your heart that you are not burdened or addicted to hate, as they are..." (Source: Lady Gaga's Twitter page   ) Awesome to read a message like that - not a self-promotion or anything like that, simply a message saying "this is what I think, and this is how I think my fans should handle these people." By loving instead of hating. Awesome message. M...