Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

Happy Scar-Day to me... Surgery was two years ago today. Without that surgery, I wouldn't be alive today. Feels like I should be having a party or something! I'll just have a beer instead... To Life!

What if Disney princesses were historically accurate? What would their lives have been like, what time period might they have lived in and what might they have worn? Those faces and dresses we know so well from Disney movies, are they really what real-life Snow Whites or Jasmines would have looked like? Probably not, as this Buzzfeed article explains. Going by clues from the Disney movies about the (possible) era and location the movies are set in, the article examines what several of Disney's more famous princesses really would have worn and looked like. One example: Source: If Disney Princesses Were Historically Accurate | Buzzfeed Snow White from Snow White and the Seven  Dwarfs - c. mid- to late 1500s Germany   CONTEXT CLUES: • Opens with a storybook that is reminiscent of early printing press manuscripts. • The dwarfs’ home is decorated with carved wooden furniture and instruments,  which, along with the mountainsand forest, is typical of the Bl...

This week's Photo Challenge photos are here! When posting about this week's Photo Challenge in my earlier post on Friday , I wrote about possible topics. I really should make it a habit to decide on topics earlier in the week, that would probably make these Challenges a lot easier! "While "Summer" would probably be the most logical topic for this week's Challenge, I'm considering other options as well. Options such as Rain, Sunshine, Heat Wave and Ice Cream. Although "Ice Cream" would probably be too expensive seeing I'd have to buy all the ice cream before being able to take photos of it! As you can see from this post's title, I decided on Sunshine as the topic for this week. Mostly because today's sunset was simply stunning, although not all of the photos were taken today. Either way - Enjoy this week's Challenge photos! Sunshine on the Water Sunshine through the Tree Sun shining on the Tree Sunny sky...

Who needs a hairdresser when you've got a full head of hair like this tree does... Full head of hair...

Upon deciding to post a photo to Twitter yesterday, the idea of adding an interesting and inspirational quote wasn't far behind. After all, I like quotes! I considered several quotes, most of them too long for Twitter. Yet I have a blog as well as a Twitter account, which means I can just post some of the quotes I would have liked to add, right here. The photo is a cropped and slightly edited version of a photo I shared for last week's two-part Photo Challenge - part one: Birds and part two: Ducks . The colours in this version feel a little more alive than in the previous / original version. As it was a warm and sunny day when I took the photo, the sunnier look of this version feels fitting. Small wings, big ripples “We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.” “He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all” After considering the two quotes above...

Decisions, decisions... What Photo Challenge topic shall I choose for this week's challenge? It's been a warm week. Thankfully not as hot as in other parts of the world where people are suffering, however summer is definitely here. Probably not 'here to stay' as the warm weather is being called a 'heat wave' but I'm enjoying it while it lasts! Last night we got to enjoy sudden summer showers and an amazing display of thunder and lightning, also due to the warm weather and very gorgeous and 'magical' - nature really is amazing and beautiful! While "Summer" would probably be the most logical topic for this week's Challenge, I'm considering other options as well. Options such as Rain, Sunshine, Heat Wave and Ice Cream. Although "Ice Cream" would probably be too expensive seeing I'd have to buy all the ice cream before being able to take photos of it! There's even a sarcastic voice in my head telling me this week...

It's Friday! That means a new episode of Defiance! And a Twitter feed full of references to Castithans, Irathients, Indogenes and Omec. And a lot of other things, including marriage and food... Not a bad way to spend my Friday evening - my inner geek / nerd / sci-fi fan(atic) is happy! To start off this Defiance Friday, I read an interview with Nichole Galicia. She plays Kindzi - one of the new aliens this season. As the actress explains in the interview, she was in New Zealand at the time of her audition. Due to the distance and the time difference with the rest of the world, her entire audition was done by taping herself. Now that is dedication and a lot of hard work! "This role was meant to be mine because that never happens. So when I was booked I did what I do to research every role, I started in a museum." As if reading that the actress was in New Zealand didn't already make me jealous, reading that she went to one of my favourite places didn't help eit...

Reading about ongoing acts of terror and destruction around the world and people who use their interpretation of religious teachings as an excuse to hurt or kill others makes me wonder about humanity, makes me wonder if we are really as smart, special and evolved as we like to believe. With all we think we know, with all we've learnt about the world and about the universe, everything we've achieved in fields like science, technology and medicine, somehow many of us still seem to believe that it is right or just to kill living beings, to keep people as slaves, to treat others as property and hurt people for not following rules some believe are right. Last week, I wrote this post entitled Violence, Death, Destruction... in which I wrote about a number of horrible attacks that took place, attacks by people who support terror, brutality and injustice. Wanting to write about what's going on in the world yet desiring to write something positive and inspiring instead of a do...

Just now, I read an email about an earthquake in New Zealand - I get an email every time an earthquake happens, through GeoNet (the official source of geological hazard information for New Zealand). At exactly the same time as I read the email, the ceiling lamp swayed. Not from an earthquake on the other side of the world several minutes ago, of course. It's just the wind coming in through the open window. Still - it's one of those strange coincidences that keeps life interesting. I like those! Screen Capture from GeoNet - Quakes with details of the 'quake I received an email about

The bird photos have been posted. Here are the duck photos... There's something about these first two photos that makes me want to quote a song. Oh you know what, I will - It's a great song that always makes me smile! It's just a jump to the left And then a step to the right With your hands on your hips  You bring your knees in tight Okay, after the second line the lyrics no longer match the photos, so I'll stop quoting Time Warp lyrics from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Although, now that I'm quoting lyrics I might as well keep going... It's just a jump to the left And then a step to the right With your hands on your hips You bring your knees in tight So, lyrics. Unless Dakota Moon want to sing "I want to be a duck" instead of "I want to be an eagle," quoting Another Day Goes By doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Although, neither did quoting Time Warp with regards to ducks. So, what if we just p...

This week's Photo Challenge theme is Birds and Ducks. And other bird-like / duck-like animals, if I spot any this weekend. Yesterday I posted several Blurry Birdwatching Photos . Today I figured the non-blurry birdwatching photos might as well be the next photos for the Challenge. So: Enjoy the first photo! Yummm... Bread! And after the first photo come more photos... One black bird came to say "hey, you." Just sat there for a while, then picked a piece and left. Hey, You Then came the gulls. Lots of them too, or perhaps the same three just kept on coming back. It's hard to tell, sometimes. Incoming... Thinking... Got a piece... Got two pieces... I played around with the individual photos a bit. The birds were in the shade, however the tree behind them was in the sunshine. The two photos below show that sunshine very clearly. Posing... Caught you! And then the ducks...Of course the ducks didn't come to my balcony (no...

As social media seems to explode about the Supreme Court of the United States of America's (SCOTUS) decision to legalise gay marriage in the US and Twitter can't seem to stop talking about how great the world is, I have to admit that there's this voice in the back of my mind that wants to tell Americans "Welcome to the club! Glad that you finally made it..." For a country that prides itself on its inclusiveness and democratic values, why did it have to take so long to legalise marriage for all people? The U.S. is now among nearly two dozen countries that allow same-sex marriage nationwide: http://t.co/GDlydLBCWW pic.twitter.com/awVwTfyHXi — PewResearch Religion (@PewReligion) June 26, 2015 As the above map shows, there are many other countries where marriage is legal for all couples, regardless of their gender. In fact, both of my countries - The Netherlands and New Zealand - have already legalised gay marriage. According to the data on the website, The...

Today, the news is full of violence, death and destruction. At a Shiite mosque in Kuwait, at a factory in France , a coastal resort in Tunisia. In Israel, in Kobani in Kurdistan. People are dead or dying, people are wounded, people are crying, people are hurting. And why? Because some believe that they are more right than others? Because some believe that their truths are more valid than others? Because some believe their interpretation of religion or God's laws are more correct than another's? Because some believe that it is up to them to terrorise, kill and destroy? At least 27 28 are dead and 36 wounded in Tunisia . In Kobani in Kurdistan , 150 or more dead and many wounded. In Kuwait , last death toll I read mentioned 5 24 dead and 15 wounded. In Israel too, people have been attacked, people die. Not by the dozens usually, so the news doesn't speak about it. Or perhaps the news simply doesn't care as much about innocent Israelis as about innocent British or F...

When you can't go outside, invite nature in, instead... ... And go birdwatching on your own balcony! My ankle still hurts, which makes going outside and enjoying nature a bit of a challenge... One that hurts. Especially seeing how lovely today was! So if I can't go out and enjoy nature, then nature can come visit me instead! Put a few pieces of bread out on the balcony hoping to attract a few of the birds that live and play around here. They visit occasionally, however tend to fly off again as soon as they see movement. Which meant that today I sat very still, hoping they'd stay long enough for me to take a few photos. Many of the images turned out blurry or unclear, either because the birds were too fast or I was too slow. A bit of both, if you ask me. The blurry photos look something like this...   There's something about those blurry images that makes me smile... Birds being birds, perhaps. I'll show some of the non-blurry images in the ...