I thought I was imagining things. Then I thought that my phone just took really crappy photos… but that’s not the case. Facebook is killing my mobile photos and I want to know why!

I have a HTC Desire and other than a few small things (like the constant messages about running out of internal storage) I can’t complain.  I don’t do as much with it as a lot of people, I rarely phone but I do msg people and upload photos to Facebook and all the usual stuff.

Just the other day I had uploaded a photo and was thinking what shitty photos my phone takes, but then I took a photo at sunset today and on my phone it looked nice and colorful, but when I uploaded it to Facebook it was completely dull. What the heck is going on?!

I decided to hold up my camera to the photo on my laptop screen and take a photo with my point and shoot camera.  See the difference?  I took the photo in the first place because when I went to the balcony to check something, I was stopped in my tracks by the beautiful blue and orange-ish pink colors in the sky.  I took a photo and quickly uploaded it to Facebook and what I ended up seeing on my screen was the photo on the right.  The colors in this photo aren’t exactly right, as it’s a photo of a photo of a photo, but you can definitely see the difference between what I took on my phone and what I got once it was uploaded to Facebook….

Again, I ask W.T.H????

I’ve had this problem previously between Photoshop and Flickr, and it turned out that it was a setting that I had to change in the color settings.  I had it to one setting but I had to set it to something else that was better for uploading photos to the web, and the problem was solved.  I can’t figure it out with my phone though. Am I doomed to upload washed out photos from my mobile?!

I was going to ask this on Facebook but then I realized that the color would just be washed out again upon uploading it and the difference might not be visible.  Although, I generally don’t have as MUCH of a problem anymore when uploading photos from my cameras (used to be gawdawful but it has improved)… now it it just seems to be the mobile uploads that are completely washed out after uploading.

Does anyone know why this might be happening or how I can fix it?  I know it’s just mobile photos but I just can’t stand not having the same photo show up as the one I took and wanted to share in the first place. Help!

*Edit* Here is another photo comparison of a screenshot of a photo after it was uploaded and a photo of what it looks like on the phone.  Man oh man this is bugging me.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Hate Facebook, Hate Your Friends!
2. Gotta Love Facebook

I’ve always seen photos from Zombie walks in Canada and the US and I’ve so wanted to get photos of one myself, so I’m really happy that they are doing one here now.

Only problem is that unlike most of the zombie walks in other countries, this is going to take place at night, which makes the whole photo thing a bit more difficult for someone like me. I don’t have a lot of gear and taking photos of moving targets in the dark will be a challenge, to say the least.   So I asked my friend Gail for some tips… the first thing she said was maybe looking into sorting out a diffuser for my pop up flash.

One of the most popular types of DIY diffusers were like this one using an old film cannister, but I didn’t have one of those handy.  I saw other version like this one using wire and a vaccum bag, but the hot shoe on my camera is designed differently so that wasn’t going to work. Plus, we have a bag free vacuum – DOH!

So, together with hubby I sat down and tried to come up with a design of our own.  These are the products we used (I forgot to take photos before cutting stuff up so these are random ones I found online):

1. A frosty plastic file folder

2. A thin plastic shopping bag, like what this person put their cat in. The semi see-through crinkly kind (I used a HEMA bag for those of you who might be in NL).

3. One or two skinny rubber bands

4. White (or any other color if you don’t want to match) electrical tape

I didn’t take photos of the actual creative process, but here’s hubby working hard on it.

He even managed to only cut himself once, which is a miracle if you ask me, considering he was using a box cutter AND scissors!

Here is the finished product:

Will it work in softening up some of my photos this evening?  Well, that remains to be seen!  I did a few quick test shots with hubby as we worked on it.  I had him stand in the toilet where it was dark so I could see if there was any difference.  If you are wondering, his eyes are closed because I kept blinding him with the flash.

The top photo was with the pop-up flash alone, the bottom is with the diffuser.  You can see that the shadows aren’t as extreme and (well I would know this, you wouldn’t) the color of the tiles is the actual color in the bottom, but made more white on the top..  Both photos are straight out of the camera with no editing so I could show the initial difference.

Granted, this is definitely a different environment than I would be using it in tonight so I’m not sure what the results will be.  Good thing about this is that if I’m taking photos and they just don’t look right on my LCD screen on the camera, it’s easy to remove.  We’ll see!

No related posts.

So, you’ve recently noticed changes to your homepage on Facebook and you are freaking out.  Suddenly you see posts between your friends and people you don’t know, the layout is different, you don’t know where to find what… you are LOSING. YOUR. MIND.

First, take a deep breath. It’s not as bad as it seems!  Facebook has changed many times over the years it’s been around and we’ve always managed to adapt.  You’ll adapt to this too, it really isn’t the end of the world.

Second, stop listening to the idiots on your friends list who are acting like Armageddon is upon us.  The new Facebook isn’t making it easier for people to hack you, nobody can see your profile that couldn’t see it before, and nobody is coming to eat your babies.  For pity sake, relax!

Third, and I’m just going to throw this completely unrelated aside in here. Don’t post chain copy and paste status messages.  You may feel like you fit in but everyone on your friends list wants to gouge your eyes out.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me explain how things are actually working with the new Facebook layout. I’m not going to explain everything that is new, just the bits that people seem most concerned about.

Today I did a little research by creating a second account and then testing some of the new features.  I did this mainly because I was wondering what happens if a non-friend subscribes to you.  Here are the results I found…

SUBSCRIBING

While the ability to subscribe to a non-friend does exist, there is no point to it.  My guess is that they just couldn’t be bothered to code anything to tell us that subscribing to a non-friend doesn’t actually do anything in some caess. The only way that you will see anything in your news feed from this person is if they have their privacy settings set to EVERYONE. Unless you have a mutual friend in common, then they will need to have their privacy settings on FRIENDS OF FRIENDS in order to see any of their activity.

So what does this mean for you?  It means that as long as you have your privacy settings set to FRIENDS only, the activity on your profile is safe.  People can subscribe to you all they like, but it’s a pointless exercise.

I tested this by using my fake account to subscribe to my real one.  I subscribed to all, then I went onto my main account and added photos and updated my status. None of this was seen by my fake account because the setting on my main account are strictly FRIENDS ONLY!

I also tested what happens if I have it set to FRIENDS OF FRIENDS by first changing one of the photo albums on my main account to Friends of Friends.  I then sent a friend request with my fake account to one of the friends on my real account (still with me?) and once she accepted my friend request that photo album from my main account suddenly became visible to my fake account.  Since I now had that friend in common, the photo album became visible to my fake account as a friend of a friend.

Ok, have I confused you with the different accounts?  Let me try to sum it up…

YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS SET TO FRIENDS ONLY = Only friends can see the activity on your profile. Period.

YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS SET TO FRIENDS OF FRIENDS = Anyone that is friends with someone on your friends list can see and subscribe to the activity on your profile.

YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS SET TO EVERYONE = Everyone is able to see and subscribe to your profile activity.

As you saw from my experiment with the single photo album, it is possible to change the settings for each individual photo album, status message etc… so what you do with that is up to you.

THE SIDEBAR TICKER (CREEPER)

A lot of people are also concerned with what is going on with the new update ticker on the right hand side of the home page.  If you are like most people on my friends list (and myself, admittedly) one thing that struck you right off the bat was that you were suddenly seeing updates that included people you’ve never heard of.

“Mary Smith commented on Susan Whatsits photo… “

Who the hell is Susan?!  You know Mary, she’s a good friend of yours, but again… who the hell is Susan?!

Why are you seeing anything that has to do with Susan, and more importantly, is Susan seeing things about you????

I have no idea who the hell Susan is, but I can answer the rest of your questions.

During the experiment with my fake account, I tested why I was seeing content from people I didn’t know through the friends we had in common. I watched my main account and when something came up including someone I didn’t know, I investigated.  Here’s how…

I saw a message saying that my friend, we’ll call him Frank Allen, posted on his friend’s photo, we’ll call her Isobel Smith.  Now, I know Frank Allan, but I don’t know Isobel Smith.  So I then did a search for Isobel Smith (on both accounts, real and fake) and low and behold, Isobel Smith had her entire profile open to the world.  Not only was it visible on my main account as a friend of a friend, but even on my fake account which has no connection to her at all, I could see everything.

I continued to do this with other messages I saw, whether it was a friend posting on someone’s status message, commenting on a link, or replying to a status message… if I didn’t know the other person, I looked them up.

EVERY SINGLE instance showed that the person my friend was posting to had their privacy settings at either Friends of Friends (visible only to my main account but not my fake one with no friends) or Everyone (visible to both).

So what is happening is that your settings are not making any difference when it comes to the updater / ticker / creeper (whatever you want to call it) on the side.  It’s the privacy settings that are set by the friends you comment and post to that is the deciding factor in whether it shows up on the rest of your friends home page.

So if you look back to my friends Frank and Isobel, for example… (bear with me, this is just hypothetical)

Imagine Frank has been having some money problems but didn’t like to talk about it too much.  He sees Isobel posting something about having money problems herself and since they don’t really have any friends in common, he decides to comment on her status and tell her he understands, he’s in the same situation and gets it off his chest a bit.

Suddenly Frank’s phone is ringing, it’s his mother wanting to know why he never told her he was having money troubles, why didn’t he come to her, does he not trust her???  Frank is left sitting there wondering “Wtf?!” and asks her how on earth she knew about it in the first place.
”I saw it on Facebook, you were telling some Isobel person. Why could you tell her and not your own mother?!”
See the situation that leaves Frank in?

By leaving her profile open to friends of friends, or to everyone, Isobel has unknowingly shared what Frank said with everyone on his friends list, including his mother.  Granted, it could be said that nobody should EVER say anything on the internet that they don’t want anyone to know, but sometimes we are lulled into a feeling of privacy when it really doesn’t exist at all.

Sure, Isobel has every right to have her Facebook open to the world but with the new changes in Facebook, that means that we have to be mindful of what our friends are leaving up to the public and what they aren’t.

If you want to know and control (as best you can) who is going to see what you put out there on your friends’ profiles, you should become very familiar with these three symbols:

The reason why you’ll want to become familiar with them is because they will tell you when something you are posing is likely to be seen by your entire friends list, or the entire internet if they are interested.

When someone posts something and you see it on your news feed, you always see this little bit beneath it…

If you look at the part I highlighted, you can see that this post in particular is for friends only, which means that if you post a comment, for example, it will only be visible to that person’s friends. The people they trust with their profile. It will not be shown to your friends, unless they are friends in common.

If you see the CUSTOM icon, then chances are they have it set to FRIENDS OF FRIENDS or they have made a custom list that you are a part of.  In any case, you can’t be entirely sure who is seeing it.

If you see the PUBLIC icon, that means that anyone who knows how to type will be able to see it.  No restrictions whatsoever and it will be seen by everyone on your friends list.

IN SUMMARY

Yes, Facebook changes can suck at times but in each and every case we adapt to them, so it’s best to try not to get all up in arms about it.  A month later you’ll forget what it was even like before…

Also, if people are seeing things on their news feeds that you don’t want them to see, don’t hate Facebook, hate your friends for not using their privacy settings more wisely.

In the end, remember that what you put out on the internet is ultimately your decision and even if you do wish your friends’ privacy settings worked better for you, it is not up to them or Facebook to protect your privacy, it’s up to you.  You are responsible for what you put out there and if you really don’t want people to see or hear something, don’t put it on Facebook.

Related posts:

1. WTH Facebook?! W.T.H?!
2. Best Friends Forever
3. Gotta Love Facebook

We’ve always known that our dogs bark when we aren’t home and would always try to be out for 3-4 hours at most, so that they could go in their crates.  They love their crates and are happy and silent when they are in there, but we don’t like to leave them in too long (unless it’s bedtime).  If we were going for longer, which was rare, we’d make sure to be home by 10pm so that they don’t disturb the neighbours too much at inappropriate hours.

I think we had sort of fooled ourselves into thinking that they stop barking after the first few minutes.  It was how we coped and made it possible to go out without worrying the whole time.  Little did we know…

They are so lucky they are cute…

In order to see what the situation was my husband designed a robot that detects when the dogs are barking and sends a message to Twitter.  We call it the Tweeter Tattle.

I KNOW, he’s a GENIUS!  Seriously, this is a ROBOT that TWITTERS.  I love this man!

So once the robot was functional we decided to test it while we went to the grocery store.  We set it up, left the dogs loose with it in the living room and headed off to the grocery store.  We had our phones with us so we could check the robot’s Twitter updates while we were out.

Sweet baby Jesus, we had no idea what was going on while we were out.  Check this out, this is a screenshot of what went on in the short time that we were at the supermarket (the first few minutes are at the bottom, so read from bottom to top):

People, this all took place within the space of an hour.  I shit you not… my dogs are idiots.

As I said, we sort of knew this was going on.  We’d asked the neighbours now and then and they’d say yeah they bark a lot while you are out, no it doesn’t bother us, it’s not so bad… but clearly we have been blessed with some incredibly patient people in our building.

Not only did this bother me because of the disruption for our neighbours, but I also hated the thought of the dogs being so agitated the entire time we are gone.  I want them to be happy and feel secure, not miserable and distressed every time we walk out the door.

I started thinking of what we could do. When we are home we have been trying to Cesar Milan their asses as much as possible, but that doesn’t do us any good when we aren’t home.  We had considered getting one of those collars, you know the ones that give a small static shock or shoot out some citronella spray, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was not such a nice thing to do to them.

I went on Facebook and asked the opinion of some of my friends who also have dogs.  They had some great advice in regards to making the dogs a little less sad when we leave, the best being giving the dogs a Kong with treats inside just as we are leaving, so that they see us going as a good thing for the, rather than bad.

I didn’t think this was going to solve our barking issue entirely though, so I cracked my knuckles and got my Google on.

That’s when I found it…

The Petsafe Indoor Ultrasonic Bark Control System.  Otherwise known as, the gadget that saved my dogs’ lives.  Best. Money. Ever. Spent.

The way it works is, it detects when the dog barks and then sends out a really high pitched ultrasonic noise.  It doesn’t hurt the dogs, it just startles and annoys them, so they quickly learn that if they make annoying noise they will get annoying noise in return.  As humans we can’t even hear it, but if you are standing really close to the machine there is a soft mechanical noise that it makes that you can hear.

I was a little skeptical when I was reading about it, I mean how is this little thing going to stop my crazy ass dogs from barking?  There’s no way.  I mean I think there have been times that I got so irritated with them that my own shrieking reached ultrasonic levels and they didn’t stop barking then!  Still, I was desperate and we had to try.

I checked with Wesdijk.nl to see if they had it, and luckily they did!  What was also lucky is that they are only a few minutes drive from here so we were able to hop in the car and go pick it up right away.

You see, we had a BBQ to go to that night and now that we knew without a doubt that the dogs were assholes, we had to try this thing RIGHT AWAY.  Our sanity and their existence depended on it.

So we get this thing home and I look at it, still unsure… but we didn’t have time to worry about it. We popped the battery in, set up the Tweeter Tattle and headed out to the BBQ with our fingers crossed.

Oh the suspense!!   I think I checked my Twitter about 400 times on my phone that evening… and do you know what I saw?

That was IT, for the ENTIRE EVENING.  Omg… and that was probably just the amount of barks it took them to figure out “Wait a minute, wtf… when I bark that annoying sound goes off and I don’t like that!”

The next day we went out again to a party at a friend’s place, once again as we are on the way I check Twitter on my phone.

Again, it probably took them a few minutes to realize what was going on, but then they were silent for the rest of the day while we were out.

Honestly, this thing is FANTASTIC!  I sit here and shake my head because I don’t know why we didn’t look into this years ago.  When I think of all the times we’ve had to leave places super early to make sure we’d get home to make sure the dogs weren’t barking and bothering the neighbours, I could scream.

We also notice a remarkable difference in the dogs’ behavior when we are home.  They don’t bark nearly as much as they used to (which was pretty much anytime the wind blew) and just seem generally more chilled out.  I used to feel like we were constantly getting up and trying to get them to stop barking at whatever was under their skin at that particular moment, now they’ll let off one bark now and then and are quickly reminded that they need to zip it.

Since it can only detect barking within 8 meters, it really just works in the living room. Although I have had it on the balcony with me and manually pressed the button on the top when the dogs bark and dogs that are passing by.  I’ve also sat it on our shoe rack in the hallway when we were expecting someone, to stop them from barking like mad at the door (which they are terrible for).  I’m pretty sure we are going to pick up a 2nd one for that end of the house (by the entry) to also cut down on their frantic barking when the doorbell rings.

Honestly, if you have a dog and have trouble with barking and don’t know what to do, you must try this.  I can’t guarantee it will work on all dogs, as I read in the reviews that some just ignored it or became immune to it after a while… but so far it’s been a godsend for us.  I recommend it wholeheartedly!

Now, if only we could find a machine to make them stop jumping on people, or shedding, or licking between our toes… or eating other dogs poo…. *sigh*

P.S. I forgot to mention, there is also an OUTDOOR VERSION of this if you have issues with your dog barking outside!  It’s even cute like a birdhouse, makes me wish I had a garden to hang it in!

*I am in no way affiliated with Petsafe. I paid for this product and this is my own personal opinion, I was not sent this product for review.

Related posts:

1. Pet Turkey
2. Saturday Photo Hunt – Daily (Dog Drama)
3. The Finished Product

Also… why did you just come along when I won’t be needing you for very long?

I admit it, tonight I ate at McDonald’s.  I know I just moaned the other day about my weight but I did say that it might not be today that I sort my shit out.

One thing I have to say, when you don’t eat McDonald’s very often, it tastes pretty damn good.

Anyway that’s not why I’m writing this.  When I walked in I saw these things…

Wtf?? How long have they been there?  I know I didn’t eat McDonald’s for almost a year but jeez… it’s the coolest thing ever!  Xander and I went to this little console and put our bank card in.  We then used the touch screen to place our order and paid for it.

This is no lie… by the time we turned around and walked the five steps to the counter, the order was on a tray and waiting for us!

OMG!!!  No more waiting in line!  At dinner rush hour we had our food within approximately three minutes of walking through the door.

Of course, it’s probably the last time I will have McDonalds for a very, very, very long time, so I won’t be able to make the best of it, but I did get to experience it this once.  Xander and I (being the geeks that we are) were in wholehearted agreement that it is, indeed, the best thing since sliced bread. 

So, I’m curious… is the Netherlands ahead or behind the times with this thing?  Are these consoles already old news back in North America or are we actually ahead of the game on this one?

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It works pretty well.

People often ask how I find the time to watch all the shows I do.  It’s pretty easy really…

Firstly, I download every show I watch.  With the exception of the movie channels, Discovery and National Geographic I never watch anything on our real time TV.  It all gets watched on my laptop or via USB on the TV.

The upside to downloading everything is that I can choose when and where I watch it. The shows sit there waiting for me to get around to watching them, rather than me planning my day around what is on.

I quickly took this photo this evening when I realized I’d forgotten my Project 365 photo for the day.  This is a typical scenario in my house.  My laptop set up with a TV show (in this case it was NCIS) while I fold the laundry.

I HATE folding laundry.  I’m pretty sure everyone does.  Why not watch something I like to help pass the time?

I know a lot of people don’t like TV, some don’t watch it at all or even own one.  Whatever.  To each their own.  I happen to love it in all it’s forms…  action, comedy, drama, reality TV… I love it all.  Like I said, there are worse things I could be into, right?

Feel free to just agree with me.

Speaking of my laptop, it’s still working!!  Well, I shouldn’t say still like it hadn’t broken down again, because it did.  The day after it died on me I put it to sleep while I went to the hospital and when I came home it was dead again.

Xander did the hairdryer thing again and it fixed it.  So now I’m afraid to turn it off or put it to sleep.  Whatever it is that cools down, it makes my laptop not work.  We are pretty sure that replacing the video card will fix it, but that itself is 200 euro.  If it turns out to NOT be just the video card we’d be out 200 euro that could have gone towards a new laptop.

Although… no new laptop would live up to Xena (that’s what we call her).  She’s big and tough, with a 20.5 inch monitor and lots of space for me to do all sorts of things at once.

It will be a sad day in the Soldaat household when I lose her.  A sad day indeed!

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Isn’t it pretty?

My preciouuuuusssss…

I love that I can lay in bed and read, and if I’m still awake and reading an hour later I can check my email and maybe throw out a few messages on Twitter before I go to sleep.

I love that when I’m going somewhere I can use it as my mp3 player to listen to music or as a GPS if I need directions.

I love that if I’m out and see something interesting or funny, but don’t have my cameras with me, I can use it as my camera.  I can even quickly pop the photo up on Facebook and share it with my friends if I want to.

I love that if I go to the doctor and need to make a new appointment, or am out with friends and am making plans, I can open my Google calendar and have my agenda at my fingertips.

I love that when I do enter the appointments that my phone automatically syncs with Google so when I get home all the appointments I’ve made are already automatically added to my agenda when I look at it on my laptop.

I love so many things about this phone that I won’t bore you by continuing this list…

There is one thing I don’t love though, in fact I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.

This POS headset that comes along with it.

If there is one complaint I would ever have about HTC it’s that they are yet to really put thought into what consumers are looking for in a headset nowadays.  Does anyone even buy this type of headphone anymore?  I absolutely despise them because the sound is terrible, they don’t fit in my ears properly, the foamy little covers always get all manky no matter how much you clean your ears.. ugh.  HATE.

This lead me to a rather frustrated search for a replacement which wasn’t a very easy task as I was quite fussy about what I wanted.

It had to have a remote that allowed me to control my music which included skipping back and forth between tracks and volume control while also having the ability to answer calls.  It’s more difficult to find than you think!

Then I found this baby… the Jabra BT3030 Bluetooth Headset.

I was a little unsure at first because I’ve never used bluetooth for anything other than transferring things between my laptop and my phone, but I loved the idea of not having to deal with cords connecting my earphones to the phone.  Many times I’ve dropped my bag just to have my earplugs wrenched painfully from my ears after forgetting I was attached to the phone!

This remote can either hang around your neck dog tag style or clip onto your clothes using the clip on the back.  The earphones are corded to that, but that’s not really a nuisance at all as I wear it around my neck and the cord doesn’t get in the way of anything.  I can walk around with my phone in my bag while controlling music and phone calls with the remote hanging around my neck.  I can also sit my phone on a table in my house and wear the headset around while I do housework or cook.  It’s fantastic!

If you don’t like the dog tag style thing that goes around your neck it is also easily removed and can be replaced with a lanyard or something else of your choice.  I quite like it though.

I worried about it draining the battery on my phone, which has not been an issue. I don’t notice the battery going down any quicker than it did any other time.  Also the battery in the remote seems to last quite a long time.  There are different sequences of button presses for different things you want to do, and to check the battery you press the volume + or – button which causes the “Jabra” on the bottom to flash either green, yellow or red to show the battery level.  I’ve used it for a number of hours already and it’s still green.

Also, as you can see on the photo to the left, it’s backlit. So if you are using it at night, listening to music in bed or in a generally badly lit area, you can still see the buttons.  It doesn’t stay lit, so you aren’t walking around looking like a tool.  It just stays on for a few seconds while you do what you need to do.

So if you, like me, have an HTC phone or other mobile and are having trouble finding a headset for all your needs, you really should check this out.  I recommend it wholeheartedly.

If you want more technical details you’ll need to click one of the links.  That’s really not my bag, sorry.

No related posts.

Now, on to the questions Kara left for me…

1. Where would you like to live once you retire?

This is tough one, and I think about it all the time.  One part of me thinks I’d like to move back to Cape Breton once Xander retires, but … then I realize there is sweet fuck all to do there and we’d most likely die of boredom after a few years.  Then I thought maybe Toronto.  I loved living in Toronto, there is so much to see and do, a lot of which I didn’t see and do in the short time I was living there.  So I want to go back to finish it… but, I don’t know if I want to live in a city when we retire.  Perhaps just outside of Toronto.  Another part of me would love to live in the south of France.  Whenever we go there I fall head over heels in love with it, but then there’s that whole French thing.  I think I’d like to live somewhere where I didn’t have to worry about language.

So, I think my answer is that I’m undecided.  I don’t think it will be the Netherlands though… I’d want to retire somewhere that we can get more house and land for our money, with a lot to do and experience.  They have the lot to do thing going for them here, but not the space.

Perhaps we’ll move to FARO!

2. What causes you to worry the most?

Right now?  Children…  I am not able to have children naturally and in a recent appointment with my doctor he reminded me that my clock has gone from ticking to something resembling the gong of a grandfather clock.  He also mentioned  some very drastic measures that may be required in order for us to ever have a child.  It’s not something I want to get into on my blog now, or perhaps ever, but it is weighing heavily on my mind at the moment as we have some very serious decisions that need to be made in the near future.  This has made me feel old, fat, extremely pressed for time and frightened…

3. What was your favorite toy as a child?

Probably the Happy Days pinball machine my uncle Sonny gave me when I was a kid.  I felt like the bees knees with that thing in my room. How many kids have their very own pinball machine?!

4. Do you make decisions quickly and easily or do you fret over them for long periods of time?

Ha! Oh I fret, I fret the shit out of it.  Then I fret about the fretting, because I feel like a big fat giant indecisive fretter!

5. What hobby would you pursue if money wasn’t an issue?

Boating!  Every summer I turn green with envy for all the people here in the Netherlands who get to cruise around in their boats. I want one!!  At the very least I want a friend with a boat who will take me out on it! haha

Ok, now it’s time for my five questions…  What do I want to know? Hmmm…

Candee, Sonya and Renee, these questions are for you!

1. Do you believe in ghosts?  Why / Why Not?
2. If you are totally honest, do you consider yourself to be a gossip?  If so, has it ever gotten you into trouble?
3. Is there anyone you’ve lost touch with from your past that you Google or search FB for regularly to find out about them?
4. What is your biggest passion in life? (other than your kids)
5. What is the craziest / scariest / funniest / weirdest thing you’ve ever witnessed? (Any of the above)

Ok, so maybe it wasn’t so silly… whatev.

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1. Tag, I’m It!

First,  Alison from A Flamingo in Utrecht named me as one of her most loyal followers.  She mentioned that she was finally going to meet me on Saturday, which was last night and meet we did!

She helped school me on margarita’s and cooking flamingos while we ate the most gigantic hamburgers on the face of the earth.  We also got to hang out with a celebrity!  More on that later…

So apparently the way the award works is that you answer a few questions and then pass it on for other people to answer.  People that you feel are loyal followers of your blog.  You know, the usual meme / award thing.

So here goes…  I think I’ve answered a lot of these questions on my blog already but maybe my views have changed over the last little while, so I’ll give it a go again.

1. Why did you start your blog? Did you expect it to become popular?

I started my blog because I was lonely.  I had already been in the Netherlands for a few years when I started it but I was still struggling quite badly. I needed a place where I could vent freely and get out some of the negative energy so that not so much of it was pouring out in my home.

I never expected it to be popular at all.  I had hoped that there were other expats who would read it, understand and maybe tell me it would get better or offer me friendship, but beyond that I didn’t expect that anyone would be interested.  I’ve had a lot of people from all different countries and walks of life visit my blog, and it’s surprising because I must admit I feel like I lead quite a boring life at times.  I don’t think I’d call my blog popular but it’s been a lot more rewarding than I ever would have expected.  I met my best friend when she urged me to meet up after finding my blog, as well as other friends and expats I never would have encountered otherwise.

2. When exactly did you start your blog?

My first blog entry was May 2, 2004, just over 6 years ago.  I just laughed out loud here because when I checked the post to see when it was I saw that the very first words I said on this blog were “THREE MORE SLEEPS TILL I GET OUT OF HOLLAND!!”.  I have to laugh because that is SO six-years-ago me.  I was just about to leave for a holiday in Canada, from which I would return full of hopes and dreams of moving back there.  A lot has changed since then. Nowadays when I go home I love seeing my home town, friends and family but by the end of my visit I’m happy to return to my other home here in the Netherlands.  Some things haven’t changed though, I still look forward to those Wendy’s burgers and dread the flight in those squishy ass seats!

3. Who are three of your most loyal followers?

I am willing to bet that I don’t even know my most loyal followers are there.  I often speak to people who tell me they read my blog, but I’ve never seen them comment which causes a bit of surprise when I realize they’ve been reading.  Sometimes my husband will tell me that people he knows have said that they read it faithfully, and then I get a bit weirded out.  It’s easy to see your blog as just your own random little space and forget that there is a whole world out there who may be reading it… random strangers, old friends, family, maybe the odd ex-boyfriend or two.  If only we could get that much info from our blog statistics… rather than just general areas that our readers come from.

So I will choose from those that I think visit and comment most often, thanks to my trusty little widget for telling me who they are!  You will have to answer these questions too!

I’ll have to skip my most popular commenter, because it’s Alison!!  The same Alison who had me answer these questions to begin with, so she’s already done it.  Still, she deserves a bit of a shout out!

The next most gabby visitor I have is Sonya!  An American expat living on the opposite side of the country from me.  I’m pretty sure she’s the devil because she bakes a lot of really sinful looking food and then puts photos up on the internet to taunt me.  I love her anyway though and after communicating online and not meeting in RL for far too long we will finally be getting together later this month!

Next is Kara!  A gal I met randomly when I found her blog and started reading about her life with her family in the Yukon.  We have a lot in common, I’m a Cape Bretoner, she’s married to one… we are both trying to lose weight… she has really cute kids and loves taking photos of them, I like looking at those photos.  You get my point.  Chances of meeting are pretty slim at the moment as I don’t think we have any plans to visit the Yukon (although I’d TOTALLY move there if it were possible, call me crazy!) and I don’t think they’ll be coming to NL… but perhaps one day our visits to Cape Breton will coincide and we’ll get together and chat over some Timmies!

Next on my chatterbox list is Gaby, but unfortunately she doesn’t have a blog… or if she does, she never links to it so I can’t really ask her to return the favor on this one.  Like Alison though – SHOUT OUT! :)

Oh lordy, that leaves us with none other than the infamous Invader Stu, the neighbour I’ve never met even though you could probably throw a stone toss a chicken from his house to mine… if you can really throw.  Who is also leaving us soon for Amsterdam, BOO!  Super duper comic maker, boat owner and all around funny guy, dating a super cutie who makes super cute cakes.  One day I am going to nail them down and force them to meet me, perhaps on the next day I hear that there is cake!

Getting back to the whole people who visit and never comment thing, I’d love to hear from some of you lurkers. I’m always SO curious who is out there that I don’t know about.  If you are someone I don’t know, an old friend, the creepy dude who keeps stalking me on your bike while I walk the dogs, a neighbour, former colleague or any other sort of random person… l’d love to hear from you.

If you are some jackass (or non-jackass) ex-boyfriend that reads just because you’re nosy or for entertainment value, I don’t expect that you’ll fess up, but still – I dare you.

Related posts:

1. Tagged by Kara
2. She Loves Me Too!!

Yesterday Michelle over at Laundromat gave me this best blogger award.  YAY, I FEEL LOVED!!  I must say I was surprised and totally stoked to get it, as the whole little blog awards thing always seem to pass me by.   Over the past few weeks there’s been one going through all the expats here like a brush fire and I kept thinking someone pick me!!! … but nobody did.  Yeah that’s me whining, and I’m talking about you!!  Yeah you, expat person reading this who doesn’t love me and didn’t give me the award when they got it!  I’m just yanking your chains.  I don’t mind.   It’s only absolute and utter rejection… I’m fine… REALLY! 

Honestly, no worries, I’m just messin’ with ya… not really.

Seriously though, Michelle had some really nice things to say about my blog, which felt great.  I have had a few periods where I totally neglected this place because I wasn’t sure what to do with it anymore.  It was made to be a place for me to complain and rant about how difficult my life was here when I had no friends to talk to, but when life started to not be so bad I wasn’t sure what to write about anymore. 

DUH, write about the good stuff, dumbass!  That’s what your thinking, right?  I’ve never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, ya know!

That’s what I’ve decided to do.  I’m sure there will still be frustrating moments and believe me I’ll share the shit out of them, but I also want to share the fun things I am doing now, the new things I learn and the people I meet.  I know my blog has come in handy for a lot of people who are struggling here, if for not other reason than to make them feel like they aren’t crazy for finding it difficult or to know someone understands.  Hopefully they still can find a connection even though things aren’t so bad.  Maybe to show them that it does get better.

I’ve also decided to start writing more about non-expat stuff that I love… photography, crafts, TV shows, movies, new cooking adventures.  Whatever strikes my fancy really.

Anyhow, I’m happy to be writing here again, even though it’s not constant complaining anymore it’s still therapeutic and I enjoy the connections it helps me make with other people going through the same, or even different, life experiences as me.

Thank you Michelle, I really appreciate your kind words and that you thought of me for the award!

Now, who shall I pass it on to?  I’m going to go by who’s blog I make a point of looking for every time I go to my feed reader.  Someone who’s blog I enjoy, that I feel I can connect with either by what is going on in our lives, what we enjoy or just because their writing style makes their blog enjoyable for me.  When I tried to think of who that person is, I knew right away because her blog was the one I had checked first for updates just this morning. 

Sure enough there was one and it showed we had even more in common, our blood type!

Yes, it’s Megan from Crafty Intentions!!

I first found her when I was thinking about doing my spare room over into a craft room and saw photos of her craft room.  Oh … my … god.  Craft room of my dreams!  I swear if I ever get a house big enough to have my own craft room, I’m saving up and flying this girl over to help me set it up.

After stalking her on Flickr for a while I discovered her blog, which I have read faithfully and loved ever since.  She is brutally honest about her quirks, which I love… and she’s crafty as all get out.  I’m constantly looking at things she’s made and wishing I had an ounce of her creativity.

Like her FRAMED set for example.  Ok these are things I could make myself having already seen her do it, but I never would have thought of it myself.  That’s what I mean, I see these lovely framed craftworks and totally want to make them too, but would I have ever come up with the idea on my own? Not a chance!

One of my favorite things is when she shares her home renovations with us.  Seriously, I want to live in her house.  I love the bold color choices she uses and how she accessorizes in just the right way.  I did our house in neutral tones because we plan to sell it but when we get our ‘forever home’, look out!! I’m totally copycatting Megan. Sorry Megan!  You can just consider our new house your Euro House!  You’ll be welcome to stay anytime, especially if you want to teach me crafts for room and board.

Honestly, here are just a few examples of her renovations so far.

Look at her romantic bedroom makeover.  It’s a long one but worth the read.  Books organized by COLOR, COLOR PEOPLE!! I’d have done by author or genre, but who sees that when they enter a room.  What a cute idea.  Oh, and it’s gadget friendly, and you know how much I love gadgets.  I need me one of those docking stations.

This is still my favorite though…her dining room renovation *faint*  I want.  Plain and simple.  Clearly I’m not the only one who loves her though, she got an award in that post too!  Yes, that is me swooning in the comments.  Leave me alone, I think I have a girl crush.

Oh, and check out what she did to her living room.  I absolutely love it.  I love the green, I’m crazy about the Christmas deco, but we all knew I would be, being the Christmas freak that I am.  I also love her bold choices with lighting.  That’s one area where I am always lost. We still have all the same ceiling lights in our house because lighting is one thing I cannot figure out.  I don’t know what would look good here.

Besides the whole crafty and awesome decorator thing, she’s also a big time animal lover.  Like me, she wants to take home every animal she sees.  Sometimes she does!  She, like me, obsesses about what animals to get, how to best care for them, and how to make sure everything is just right.  I love following her through her saga with adopting a dog and all the craziness he’s brought into their lives.  She is one of the most responsible and thoughtful pet owners I know, and that goes a long way with me because I’m a huge animal lover too.

Her biggest saga has just begun though, as she’s recently found out that she is pregnant.  I can only assume that this will bring about a whole new range of posts, as well as a whole lot of crafts for baby.  I’m looking forward to that!

Anyhow, she gets my best blogger vote this time, wholeheartedly.  Thanks Megan, for keeping us all entertained, making us laugh and inspiring us with your creativity!

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1. He Loves Me!
2. The Cat Who Loves Me