The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,100 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
The warmest Christmas since a lonngggg time. 12 degrees! So there was no chance of snow this year, just some nice sunshine. The weekend was filled with food and presents. Lots of wine. Delicious turkey. So much chocolate. And friends and family.
An impression in pictures:
It’s not really Christmas without stuffed eggs…!
My mom’s famous pears.
Boardgames!
Let there be ‘toast’!
Turkey in bacon. The ‘Burkey’.
Mom doing a little magic.
The delicious end result.
A little walk to burn some of the food off.
Mom & Dad.
Because the weather is still very mild for this time of year! I took some shots while biking on Monday. The temperature was perfect for a long ride that day.
For all the people that know and use the site Reddit, they might have heard of Secret Santa. Well, today I will receive my match and another Redditor will get my name and we shall make/buy/create awesome presents for each other. This is my first year participating and I’m quite excited about it. Such a great concept! Spread the joy!
I found this questionnaire on the Secret Santa subreddit and found it so old school and “back when I was 13 and still on CU2 and myspace” I decided to fill it out.
Favorite types of food: I like loads of things. As long as it tastes delicious.
Favorite 3 types of Candy: Either extremely sour, extremely “slimey” or those red tubes with the white sweet stuff in it. Oh this sounds so wrong.
Chocolate Yes/No: OH HELL YES.
Favorite Scent: Smell of crisp, fresh air. When you walk into a forest or are on a boat, just the pure scent of nature.
Do you have any Hobbies?: Just the typical hobbies, movies, music, books. I like to do Pilates, but most of all I just really love hanging out with my awesome friends.
Favorite Author/Genre of Book: I mostly enjoy fiction and especially the works of Niccolo Ammaniti and the last book I read that was awesome was by Jonas Jonasson.
Favorite type of animal: Dogs are the best pets ever. And when it comes to wild life, I love tigers and anything fierce. Predatorrrrsss.
Movie you would like to own: In this age of download, I still buy some DVDs every now and again, I have most of the things I love already on DVD. A movie I would like to own is one that inspired somebody else.
Favorite Color: Black is not a color right? So uhhmm….
What person (dead/alive) you would like to meet?: Conor Oberst
Favorite Music Artist/Type: Bright Eyes is my favorite band ever and ever. I love indie, old school rock, hardcore and some hiphop to mix it up.
Do you Collect Anything?: Not really.
Favorite Stores to shop at: Monki, asos.com, Acne, oh I like all the things….
Favorite Drink: Non-alcoholic: Diet Coke from a can. Alcoholic: Chardonnay or champagne.
Favorite Sports Team/Athlete: Footballll! Ajax!
Favorite Time of the Year: Spring
One Place You Would Like to Visit: Just one? Iceland.
Favorite Magazines: Fashion magazines are nice, turn brain off and turn pages. Relaxing.
Favorite Restaurants to Eat at: I just really like to eat, so anything delicious with a nice decor.
Favorite TV Show: The Wire. Game of Thrones.
Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner? DINNER
One Actor or Actress You Would Want to Meet: Jake Gyllenhaal. Just stare.
Coffee or Hot Chocolate?: If I would drink hot chocolate in the same amounts as I would drink coffee, you could hang a basket under me and send me off as a hot air balloon. So coffeee pleaasssee. Wakey wakey.
Favorite Type of Cookie: Chocolate Chip.
Apple or PC?: I have a PC right now, but I want an Apple soooo baadddd.
My favorite part of the day is: Evening
If I ruled the world: If I ruled the world. Imagine that. I’d free all my sons, I love em love em baby. Black diamonds and pearls. Could it be, if you could be mine, we’d both shine.
Come on, that made you think of that NAS song as well, right?
Anything else your SS should know: You look so pretty today…!
The other day I read this great article on Grist about ‘clean street art’ or ‘grime writing’. Artists work with the dirt that naturally builds up in urban areas and make art by cleaning certain parts of it.
It is such a great way of creating street art and what can the cops say about it? Stop cleaning the place?
Must remind you as well of painting a picture on a dirty windshield with your finger or creating images in the sand. It will fade away over time (or when the city decides to clean the place) and is less toxic than spray paint. Even though it has a ‘green feel’ to it; advertisers could probably also use this as a great method of getting the word out. I’ll be keeping my eyes open to see if I see any grime writing in Amsterdam.
The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
You can’t change the wind, you can, however, adjust your sail.
The cure for anything is saltwater — sweat, tears, or the sea.
Isak Dinesen
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving – we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.
William Shedd
And I wish I was a sailor so I could know just how to trust, maybe I could bring some grace back home to the dryland for all of us Gregory Alan Isakov – 3 A.M.
The best sailors are made during the roughest storms. Stay steady. Stay calm.
The pessimist complains about the wind;
the optimist expects it to change;
the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.
Willa Cather
Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
William Shakespeare
Cyclops shark? Oh yes! Looks fake, but it isn’t. At least experts say it is legit. The albino cyclops shark was actually still a fetus and probably wouldn’t have survived long if it was born.
This little cyclops wasn’t the only water creature that made headlines in the past couple of weeks. How about a fish with three eyes?!
Like the picture already suggest, kind of like Blinky from The Simpsons right? Just a little. You can read the full article about the discovery here. It was actually found near a nuclear power plant (also very Simpsons), but it does raise some questions about whether the reactor it was found near is still safe enough. The fish is being investigated to find out if it is just a freak of nature or man made little monster.
While still on the topic of little water babies. Don’t you just want to cuddle with this one?
The fangtooth or ‘ogre fish’ is one of the many weird deep sea creatures. I remember being fascinated by them when I was younger. So freaking scary! Probably after one of those puppies appeared in a cartoon version or something. I remember also seeing an angler fish in one of the Disney’s I believe. The little light was the thing that was most scary oddly enough.
And then I saw Jaws and all of a sudden being further into the ocean than where I could stand was unacceptable. Totally ridiculous of course.
Since it was Halloween the other day, I found some creature in tune with the holiday. The vampire squid and the coffin fish.
I figure everybody who reads this also has another window open, immediately booking that deep sea diving class. Oh the joy! No, it’s not all that bad. To prove it, I will leave you with this (sort of) cute dumbo octopus.
