Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

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...

How cool is it to be mentioned or featured online?!!!! Thanks for featuring my photo / blog post Steve G. Bisig, I'm honoured! :-) Nature & Landscape Photography is out! http://t.co/vis0AtuIh0 Stories via @NLCT @nimavenl @RSarkuv — Steve G. Bisig Photo (@SteveBisig) May 19, 2015 Thanks for featuring my work Steve G Bisig Photo , I'm honoured!

Becoming a better photographer through participating in challenges. I like the idea and know it from (when I used) Instagram . My current mobile phone is an older model HTC that often 'freaks out' when trying to do simple things and on which I can't uninstall certain apps that all have permission to collect my data and personal information which means I don't use it to connect to the internet (as it's no-one's business but my own who I text or call, as far as I'm concerned). That means no Instagram for me since my old smartphone broke and I started using this one. New smartphone will possibly probably mean a return to IG (however even with a new smartphone I'm still undecided about returning to IG). As for now, the BBC.com article directs me to their own challenge and the 12 by 12 website (and Flickr group ). Colour me intrigued. When looking for a way to challenge yourself photographically it can pay to scan the online photographic community in se...

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...

A photo from 8am this morning. Love the colours! Post by Nimavenl .

Very interesting video :-)

I am so sick and tired of Instagram's issues! Been trying (on and off) for the past 45 minutes to post comments to a photo I posted and am having no luck. Managed to get a few 'tags' posted however apart from the few tags, the others remain unposted. Instagram uses a method of tagging a photo so others can find it by subject. Tagging works by putting a hash tag before a word. One may search for #flowers or pictures of the #beach, for instance. When tagging is practically impossible, getting my photos 'out there' is harder as I can't put as many tags (descriptions) on my photos as I would like. Problems with posting comments to Instagram are annoying. They are not life threatening or anything like that, I am aware of that :-) Sometimes though, it's good to complain a bit when I manage to wind myself up too much over an insignificant problem! It helps me get it out of my system and hopefully gets my problem some exposure by putting it online. Anyone out t...

Around Alkmaar 01 A photo posted by Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) on Jul 22, 2012 at 2:38pm PDT

Orange Overload A photo posted by Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) on Jul 21, 2012 at 6:01am PDT

So I haven't written a blog post in a couple of days. Mostly as I've been spending all my spare time watching Battlestar Galactica online. I finished the series on Friday. Started on Caprica yesterday and am liking and enjoying it just as much as I liked and enjoyed BSG. The Taurons are portrayed like Italian mobsters from the 30s with their hats, suits, crime syndicate and especially "Little Tauron". Interesting to see that, coupled with futuristic-ish equipment and environments, yet the combination somehow still feels right.  Hilarious to see dogs, cats, cars and refrigerators on Caprica that look *exactly* the same as they do in our world. Sure, humans having pets and keeping their food in a place where it won't spoil - logical for sure, however I'd expect things to look just a bit different, really. Star Trek's pet sehlats and targs seem more realistic, somehow. But then, the BSG-verse story is that the remnants of the human race settled on our...

What's the deal with people who follow you on Twitter and then unfollow you almost straight away? I'll get an email that such and such has subscribed to my Twitter feed, that they are interested in what I've got to say, in what I'm doing or thinking about, in the photos I share... Yet I click on the link to their profile in the email and where it should say "Follows You", it doesn't say that. Which means people followed my account only to unfollow me again almost straight away. Leaves me to wonder: Why do that? I'm not a celebrity or a famous author or a politician or a well-known journalist or anything of the sort. I'm opinionated and straightforward and not afraid to speak up, however that's not unique to me. I speak two languages, call two countries home, enjoy being a citizen of the world, enjoy knowing what it's like to have lived elsewhere, to have experienced life in different countries. Also not unique. I am interested in the wo...

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!

With my new Twitter account going and people deciding to "follow" me every day, I figured there might be a chance some of these people actually read what I have to say. I "follow" 200+ people, and I certainly can't read everything written by everyone, so I don't expect others to read everything written by me, however if some people read what I write and enjoy it, then that would be awesome! I tried to find a quote I liked to use for today's update. Something about how life is a train and we should enjoy not only the journey but also the destination. Or maybe something about how every cloud has a silver lining and how after rain there will be sunshine (Dutch saying). As I couldn't find a quote on any of those subjects I decided to go with something slightly different: "I have found that if you love life, life will love you back." ~Arthur Rubinstein Also true, and also a reflection of how I'm feeling today. As I'm still tr...

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 !!!