Author Archives: lex@magical7.com

I have never played Outlast

Most people will know me as a being easily scared. If you don’t, perhaps you should read last October’s I Never entry.

Things haven’t really changed since then. I still avoid watching scary movies and playing scary games, to much dismay of Lena, who loves that kind of thing.

So, I’m going to try something way out of my comfort zone: I’m going to play Outlast, which is supposedly scary straight away. To make it more interesting for whoever is still following this blog, I will have a live stream of my adventure. If you’re interested, make sure you tune in on July 25th, at 21:00 GMT+1 (Dutch local time) to watch me scream like a little girl. I’ll make sure to post the link to the stream in here beforehand, and I’ll see if I can make the recordings available for those who miss it.

See you the 25th!

I have never made pizza burgers

Also, I have never been this overdue with an I Never post. Sorry!

Anyway, this post is not about the Dr. Oetker pizza burger which has a lot of TV commercials these days. Not to say it’s bad: I tried it when it first arrived in the Netherlands last year and was not disappointed, though they were a bit small for their price.

This post, however, is about a homemade pizza burger. Inspired by this image, I decided to make something similar for myself. The idea was to make better portions, less raw meat and a lower risk at heart attacks.

So, I started with the burgers:

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Fun fact: this was the first time I made burgers from scratch. Good thing Lena was there to tell me to use bread crumbs ^^

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Lena helped too!

Now here’s the trick to making bite-sized pizza burgers: instead of using a full-sized pizza, I bought and prepared some Wagner Piccolini’s.

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Just take two Piccolini’s, stuff a small burger in between and voilà: a delicious snack

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Nom!

I have never fed my hand to a shark

This year will be the last year that Dierenpark Emmen (formerly known as Noorder Dierenpark) will exist in its current form. Ever since I was just a little boy, we have visited this zoo, located in the center of the Dutch town called Emmen. Somewhere last year, Ryah and I found out that the zoo is to move out of the city and relocate to the secondary location they opened in 2008. For nostalgia’s sake, we decided to visit them in the center for the last time this year.

Last Tuesday, we went there: Ryah, our mother, Lena and myself. There were some issues getting there: we were given the incorrect destination, but Ryah and mom had some car issues, so we were not the only ones too late. After a short coffee break, we arrived at the zoo at a decent time.

I’ll spare you the details of our event, but in short: it was a lot of fun. Even though it’s been many years since our last visit, it felt exactly the same as I remember it. The fish puzzle, the zoo mascot pointing out various routes and facts, ancient computers where you can play a quiz, and perhaps most importantly: a shark.

If you’ve ever visited the shark tank in Dierenpark Emmen, you may know what I’m talking about. This particular shark hides in the dark until an unwary visitor sticks their hand through the hole in the glass and then… CHOMP! Say goodbye to your hand.

Well, in my mind.

In reality, this is a fake shark. It’s true that it’s hiding in the dark behind glass. If you stick your hand through the hole in the glass, the lights around it turn on while the shark moves forward menacingly.

In all the years that I visited, I have never dared put my hand through the hole. No matter how often my parents showed me that it’s safe, there was no way I would risk it.

Given that this may have been my last chance to do it (who knows whether the shark of doom would still be in the new park), I decided to conquer my fear and face the shark. I placed my hand through the hole.

It wasn’t as scary as I remembered it as a child. A bit, still, but less so.

There’s a video of this adventure, but we’ll have to do some video magic before we can upload that. I’ll edit that in later.

EDIT: Here it is:

We have never attempted the Alphabetical Eating Challenge

If you hate people posting pictures of their food, you may not like this blog post. Because it will be mostly pictures of what me and Lena will eat over the next few days.

Then again, food is what this month’s I Never is all about.

I remember thinking of this silly project called the Alphabetical Eating Challenge over lunch while I was still working with SST Software in Enschede. Starting tomorrow, several years after the initial idea, I will attempt this challenge.

The rules are as follows:

You start, obviously, at A. At this moment you are only allowed to eat (or drink) things that start with the letter A. After you’ve eaten something starting with A, you may decide at any time to continue to B, even during your meal, but only as long as you have finished whatever A-food you were eating. Then, after having eaten something with B, you may continue to C any time you want. Continue until you finish the entire alphabet.

In other words: you are only allowed to eat and drink things starting with a certain letter and you must eat or drink at least one thing that starts with that letter before going to the next letter. You may, however, stay at a letter for as long as you like.

Of course, back when I devised this plan, I didn’t expect to have a girlfriend while attempting it. Despite being skeptical at first, Lena decided to even join me in this endeavor, which turned out to add an interesting twist: while I am trying this in English, she will go through the letters in Dutch.

What is the purpose of this? It may seem like a physical challenge, but it’s mostly a challenge of creativity. A cucumber may start with a C, but when combined with a tomato and some dressing, it becomes a salad. And tea can become a Cup of tea by simply changing the way you think about it. The only rules are those outlined above: it’s up to you what counts or doesn’t count as your letter.

I’m planning to provide daily updates of our progress as edits to this blog post. Of course, these updates will be mostly in the form of the aforementioned food pictures. Stay tuned for the real post to start tomorrow!

Day 1: A – I

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Breakfast: apples, bread, butter and bologna (or boterhamworst in Dutch).

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Yummy, coffee and donuts. I even was allowed some caramel syrup in my coffee 😀

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It’s important to drink enough. Enjoying some Dubbelfris (a Dutch light kind of juice).

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I’m pretty sure that the English translation for Deventer koek is still Deventer koek. Ok, Wikipedia say it’s Deventer honey cake. Whatever, still a D.

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We still have a jar of small chocolate Easter Eggs laying around. A perfect opportunity! Also time to enjoy some Fristi.

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I was getting a bit hungry and dinner wasn’t going to be ready all too soon, so Lena made a filet americain sandwich <3

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Dinner: goulash!

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After-dinner snack: Hamka’s (but then the cheap variant)

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And because I should drink enough: some Ice Tea that was left over from D&D last weekend to end the day on. As expected, we’re moving through the letters fast enough to be done within two or three days. However, the most challenging letters are still ahead… And starting tomorrow, I’ll be working again, so we may slow down. Nevertheless, we’re still going strong and not giving up!

Day 2: I – M

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Like I predicted, we slowed down when it comes to letters. Breakfast was Iced Cappuccino and a jelly sandwich.

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A quick cup of juice before heading to work.

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Snack-time at work were a kiwi and Kitkat mini.

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And all I ever see, is just a cup of lemon tea.

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Lunch! Mozzarella sandwich!

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Always make sure to drink enough. I was lucky to find some mango tea at work as well.

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I realized I was allowed to eat M&M’s 😛

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This one is Lena’s. She’s used this project as an opportunity to eat all kinds of chocolate XD

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Macaroni!

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This is something you don’t usually get in the Netherlands: mint lemonade. My mom found this in Germany and decided to bring it for me so I can use it cocktails (which I did).

Day 3: M – R

Today was rough. Q is a difficult letter, even more so while at work. Still, we made it through another day and another few letters.

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I think this speaks for itself.

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Noodles!

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I even managed to eat some fruit during this challenge in the form of this orange.

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And orange soda too!

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Some prawn crackers to snack on while preparing dinner.

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The difficult one for today: quesadillas! Never had them before, but they turned out quite nicely (except for the half-burned one where I had to remove the outer layer of tortilla).

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And I was getting quite thirsty, so some Roosvicee to end the day on. We’ll probably finish the last few letters tomorrow, including the very difficult U, X and Z (there’s a sneak peak in the above image). Stay tuned for the finale!

Day 4: S – Z

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Starting the day with a sandwich with sugar.

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Then some tea at work. Today I was lucky enough to be able to drink both Turkish Apple and Tropical Fruit tea.

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Lunch consisted of Unox knakworst (or frankfurter) on bread, together with a Vanilla coke and some Verkade buscuits. U seemed pretty difficult, but by allowing brands, turned out not so big of a deal.

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Finally, I was allowed some water.

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One of the trickiest letters: X. This was the one we feared most. With the help of drinksmixer.com, we were able to find a solution. Of the six drinks starting with X, Lena picked the above-pictured Xanthor’s Pants. Unfortunately, Lena had to leave before I came back home, which means she was not able to taste it. It was nice: a bit strong, but very tasty. Of course, given the time, I opted to make one with decaffeinated coffee.

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Yoghurt. The reason it looks so green is because I mixed mint syrup in. Now is the time to try things out. It was ok. Maybe it didn’t bother me much because I still felt the strong drink.

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Finally: a pack of Zuivelhoeve yoghurt.

These have been a fun four days. Sometimes they were tough, when we had to carefully plan our food. Sometimes they were unhealthy or expensive. However, it was fun to do and I learned a few things, like how to make quesadillas and that I do actually like Ice tea. But for now, I’m happy to eat whatever I want again.

Then, on to our next project: finish everything we couldn’t eat!

I have never tasted herring

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I find the concept of eating fish generally gross and raw fish doubly so. The idea that you’re eating something that used to swim in the sea in pretty much the same state is something I cannot get behind. The creature that stares at you with dead eyes from behind the fish stand’s counter is not something I would voluntarily put in my mouth. The occasional “kibbeling” I can eat without a problem, and for some strange reason, I’m very fond of shrimps. But herring, no thank you.

Enter Lena. When she found out I have never tasted herring, she immediately accused me of not being a proper Dutchman. She insisted I at least tried it once.

So I did.

The video for the most part speaks for itself. It started with a faked convinced bite, followed by tasting the herring. To be honest, it wasn’t that bad. But then comes the realization of what it is I’m doing (if you look closely, you can see the exact moment I realize). Obviously, after that point, I was done eating.

So: was it bad? Not really. Would I do it again? Probably not. At least Lena is content now.

I have never biked through Deventer with Lena

Last Wednesday, we biked from our house to the Jumbo to buy some groceries.

That may sound like something really mundane, but it felt like such a huge thing. It strengthened the feeling of the life we’re heading towards: living together.

For the few people who have not been up to speed with our relationship, since the start of February this year, Lena has been practically living with me. It started with just her kittens the weekend before that, but that left her completely alone in her own house. Seeing how I was free from my regular job for the entirety of February, it felt logical that Lena would stay with me. And it never occurred to us that she would leave.

By now, Lena’s house is barely inhabitable. TV and Internet will be cut off soon and last weekend we picked up her furnace, fridge, drawer and her bike. Half-way through April, her rental contract will end and we will officially start living together.

To summarize how I feel about that: it’s awesome! Despite being used to more or less living on my own and being OK with it at the time, I cannot imagine ever wanting to live by myself again. It’s coming home to someone you love. It’s great waking up together with someone you love (even if that someone goes back to sleep once I head off to work). In general, it’s just more fun.

And Lena is a great help around the house. She often cooks and cleans way more often than I did (or do). And she has given the living room a complete make-over. The past two weeks, I have come home to completely different arrangements: huge improvements compared to what it was like earlier. The couches are set up to create a cozy seating area, while between that lounge part and the kitchen is a lot of room left for a bar, if we want.

In summary: everything is awesome and I’m happy. Thanks, Lena!

P.S. Lena has already managed to get a flat tire…

I have never hosted a convention

Hearth’s Warming Con 2015 has come to pass. Right before and right after, I wrote entries in my physical journal. I will start this blog post with those two entries and complete this post with a more detailed wrap-up. The journal entries have remained completely unedited.

I Never hosted a convention

20-02-2015 time unknown, Melanie / Diederik’s place

It’s about two am and Lena and I are in our bed at Melanie and Diederik’s place. Roughly eleven hours ago, our convention weekend started. We packed the car with sponsor merch, sleeping stuff and a whole bunch of miscellaneous items. And then we drove off.

Our trip was fairly uneventful. We encountered some traffic jams, but nothing major.

The feeling we had though. That was something. Our first stop was at a copy shop in Duiven, where we picked up the con booklets. After that, we made a stop at a nearby McDonalds for a toilet and food break. That’s when the feeling of going on a holiday was strongest and it really made me wan to take a trip with Lena.

As the ride progressed, however, tiredness set in and we became a bit irritable. Luckily, we arrived in one piece, after which we had to run another errand. We decided to regroup at IKEA and have a quick dinner before heading back for more work.

And now, we’re about fourteen hours before the con. There are still things left to be done, but we know what they are and how to do them, so we can do them quickly and efficiently.

Most important now then is sleep. So I’ll put down my pen and get to that.

Long days are coming.

WTF

22-2-2015, about 0:30, Melanie / Diederik

And we’re done. Wow. That was something.

Lena and I just finished the very lasts of our tasks for today and are now preparing for bed.

I’m having trouble staying awake.

But wow. What an amazing two days. Words can barely describe it, but we’ve been running, stressing, fixing everything in our path to give everyone a good con experience.

And as far as I can tell, people enjoyed it. It definitely was a big success and I do hope to get to do it again.

Tomorrow will see the second part of the look-back at HWCon, with more details on what happened. And after that will come evaluations and finalizing of the financial matters.

But first, we’re going to sleep in.

I think we have earned it.

Good night!

The (second) day after

Yesterday, I meant to write more about what exactly happened at HWCon, but we slept in, stayed around Melanie and Diederik’s place for a bit, then headed home and just took it easy. Now, let’s head back to Friday morning: the morning before Hearth’s Warming Eve.

There was a lot to be done. Lena and I were tasked with getting a van and picking up some instruments for the Przewalski’s Ponies, a Russian band that was going to play at our convention. That mostly went well, aside from a minor collision, the details of which I can discuss upon request.

So,  we made our way to the venue, where I started unloading the van, while Lena headed back to Melanie and Diederik to help transport stuff to the venue. That last part took some more time than expected, and by the time they arrived, we were getting pretty close to opening. Fortunately, we had some very useful volunteers who helped us set up in a very short time, and with only a fifteen-minute delay, we opened the ticket registration.

Registration went a bit hectic at first, but once we got the hang of it, we were able to smoothly process our evening guests. About half an hour later, the fifty or so people who had been waiting to go inside were let in and were enjoying some of the games we set up, or simply having a chat with others.

Now, as tends to happen at conventions where I have this kind of responsibility, I don’t partake in many of the activities. I prefer to stick around the key areas of operation to make sure everything there stays in order, and I’m alright with not really following the program. Therefore, I missed our story teller (but I heard that people enjoyed it very much) and the follow-up performances and party. Nevertheless, I’m glad they were successes.

Also, I did manage to score a two-player starter set for the CCG, so Lena and I can play that too now! Unfortunately, the two packs of card sleeves we bought with them did not have enough sleeves to pack an entire deck, which in my opinion is a really poor buy, but what can you do about it.

Anyway, the Eve went well. Cleaning wasn’t that big of an issue, as we would still have all of the venue the next day, so we took what we would no longer need on Saturday and headed out. Me and Jasper, the person who organized our DDR and karaoke events, took the van to gather the equipment for these events and went back to Melanie and Diederik for some quick z’s.

Getting up on Saturday morning wasn’t easy. The previous day had been pretty busy, and Saturday would be no different. Once again, we headed to the venue, where we set up shop. I again focused on the registration booth, but I was often interrupted by vendors who were allowed inside earlier (but still had to register with me).

Again, we were able to set up fairly quickly and with about a fifteen minute delay, we opened for the second day.

This day, however, we had roughly 200 people who wanted to enter, and we took quite a bit longer. Luckily for us at the entrance, due to technical difficulties, the opening was delayed for about an hour, and we managed to get everyone in the line inside before we started.

With the breaks in the schedule, the delay of the opening was fixed after only two events and the schedule could continue as planned. Again, I was running around for most of the con, most of the time as a messenger trying to find the correct person required for whichever problem arose. But that was fun. I love doing that kind of thing. I did miss out on pretty much all events, which, aside from karaoke, I do not mind. I would have liked singing one song, but that’s just the way it goes.

All in all, it was a big success. I have seen lots of reviews and write-ups about the event, with very positive remarks. There were mentions of things we can improve too, most of them very valid issues, but people in general were forgiving, seeing how this was a first-time convention. In fact, many said that this was one of the best first-time cons they have ever attended, which is just great to hear.

Of course, it wasn’t just me. In fact, there were a lot of people who worked hard to make this convention the success it was, and I will take this opportunity to thank them: our volunteers, who worked so hard before and during the convention to make sure that everything was taken care of for our visitors; the people from Ponyville Live, who streamed and recorded the events at the Mane Stage; the members of the EPCU, for their advice and support; our guests and vendors, for providing an entire day filled with things for people to do; the people from Event Center Fokker, for allowing us to use their venue for this event; all of our visitors and Indiegogo backers, who believed in us and allowed us to make this convention a reality; and of course the members of the Hearth’s Warming Con Committee: Melanie, Diederik, Aluriya, Moontune and Eynav, as well as former members Marco and Hyfnae, for their time and effort the last year and a half.

It wouldn’t have been the same without you!

Normally, I would post some pictures with my entry, but due to my running around all the time, I have not really had time to take pictures. Luckily, others had, so I will link those here. If any more become available or if the recordings are finished, I will edit those in later.

Hearth’s Warming Eve (PhoenixWing)
Hearth’s Warming Day + After-party (AlexPhoenixWing)
Hearth’s Warming Eve (DeltaCrisis)
Hearth’s Warming Day (DeltaCrisis)
After-party (DeltaCrisis)

Post-HWCon15

Now that it’s over, all that remains is the question: what’s next? Obviously, despite the event having passed, there is still more to do for the organization. The most important tasks now are finalizing the finances and evaluating the convention, both from our own point of view as from anyone attending. And after that comes the question on everyone’s mind: will there be second Hearth’s Warming Convention? I hope so, and I will do my best to make it happen.

But, the busy period is over and there is room for other projects. My main focus is going to be reorganizing my house. Over the past few weeks, Lena has more or less come to live here, which brings along some required changes to my interior (such as not putting all cups and glasses on the top shelf). We also have two houses worth of couches, two washing machines and more of that ilk, so we’re going to go through all of that.

Lena has said she wanted to go back to animating. She used to run a group of people working on a Warrior Cats series. With me as co-director, she’s going to revive that project. Whenever I’m not working on that, I will try and revive my own project of Stumble-a-pony, a Stumbleupon website geared towards pony content. For those curious, I have a prototype running on stumbleapony.magical7.com.

And lastly, Lena and I are planning on hitch-hiking to England, which means we will travel through France. That’s why we’re planning on taking some crash lessons in the French language.

So, enough to do once again. I’m looking forward to it.

I have never attended an OK Go concert

And now I have. I would post some pictures, but I was too busy enjoying the show to take any.

I can fill some space with some rambling though. It’s sort of related to the concert, and some parts are related to I Never in general and I’ll try and combine them all into some form of coherent story.

Let’s start in Heerenveen, about one or two weeks ago. Lena, Willemieke (a friend of Lena) and I were running some errands in the city center when we were getting a bit hungry. Knowing I have never tried herring, Lena suggested to get some at a nearby fish vendor. She did get some at the fish vendor. And she bought some for me.

I didn’t eat it.

The reason behind this is that I have never tried it. And if I never tried it, it’s a candidate for I Never. When I first started I Never last year, I planned to do one entry a month. And when we were in Heerenveen (which was in January), I had already posted something for that month.

Later on, I realized that this is a perfect example of the rules restricting the purpose. The idea behind I Never was to do more things I had never done before, but in this case, I didn’t do something because of I Never.

So, time to change things around. I Never will no longer be restricted to one a month, even though I will keep the minimum of one a month. Expect to see more weird activities on here.

As a matter of fact, you are reading the first entry of the above list right now.

You see, in February, I had already planned an entry, of course having the topic of Hearth’s Warming Con.

Speaking of which, HWCon is getting very close. In a few days, the entire con will already be over. As a result, I have a lot to do. Luckily, I sort of anticipated that and took the necessary precautions by taking the entire month off from work. Even then, it was pretty rough, especially during the last week of January, but things have quieted down a bit.

Just a bit.

The last few days were filled with finalizing all the things. As always, a bunch of unexpected items crossed our paths, so we’ve definitely been busy.

But it’s coming to a close. Tomorrow, Lena and I will go to Melanie and Diederik where we will prepare the last items before the con starts on Friday. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also looking forward to the projects we have planned to pick up after it.

Of course, you’ll read more about it once it has actually taken place.

Which leaves me with just the concert to discuss. It was awesome. OK Go really knew how to put together a show and I would recommend it to just about anyone really. Or at least take a look at their clips.

I know this is kind of a chaotic way to end this post on, but we have things to do.

For anyone visiting Hearth’s Warming Con: See you there! And those of you who don’t, expect my next entry somewhere next week.

I have never worn a onesie

onesie, noun – a loose-fitting one-piece leisure garment covering the torso and legs.

A bit of background on this one: I mentioned the New Year’s party at Lena in my Turn of the Year entry. One of the key things during that party were the various onesies that certain attendants wore. We even drove to a nearby city center in search of more onesies for the party, but we failed in acquiring any more.

Last week, however, Lena and I drove to the Primark in Almere, your number 1 stop for onesies. Advertising aside, we managed to get ourselves a nice set:

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For those who can’t tell (and I can unfortunately not blame you), Lena has a mouse onesie, while I have a dinosaur one (no, it’s not a duck).

First impression: it’s comfy and easy to wear. Furthermore, it’s surprisingly warm. So warm actually, that I now turn the heater a few degrees lower. Given that these onesies are pretty cheap, that’s not that bad a deal.

But the best part about them is probably wearing them. Seeing how we are both crazy, we’ve worn our onesies outside quite a few times already. Right after buying them, we put them on while going to the McDonalds and an oriental shop in Almere. We’ve been to the Albert Heijn in Heerenveen in onesies twice already, once with Sylke in her own onesie. And we’ve been to IKEA and Beter Bed Hengelo in these.

Passer-by reactions were mixed. As expected, people were generally surprised. Most people looked at us oddly, or laughed to themselves. A few felt the need to make fun of our fun. But we’ve gotten a few compliments as well, and kids generally like us. There was this one cute kid at the IKEA who came up to us wearing a Toothless hoodie. Definitely worth it.

Curious? As I said, they’re relatively cheap at any Primark. And if you’re brave enough, you can join us on February 8 when we go see a movie in onesies.

 

 

Turn of the Year – 14/15

Every year I am surprised by how much can change in that time span. Most days are not really exciting, but when looking at a lot of days at once and think back if all the things took place, there are so many things that stand out. Let’s see what 2014 brought me.

January 2 – First day of work. This year marked some very big changes, starting with my official introduction to being what Dutch students refer to as “burger” (lit. citizen). Of course, this wasn’t completely new, as I worked there for two months in 2013. Still, going from doing nothing all day to working four days a week is a pretty big change. It’s a bit much to combine with my Hearth’s Warming Con obligations, but I love the company and will continue my time at least for 2015.

January 25 – London Brony Winter Party. My first time in Great Britain was a two-day trip with Lena, Moontune and John Smith, when we decided we wanted to attend a brony party. The party was great and it was really cool to visit London, even though I haven’t seen any of the tourist attractions. Worth going back for it.

February 8 – Zwolle beer week. As someone spending most of his free time alone, I gladly accepted the invitation to the Zwolle beer week, where I met Dorus for the first time. I did not expect to see him that much more though. I’m glad we do.

February 14 – One year after losing Timo. It wasn’t just fun this year. This year I had the strange realization that I was older than him; something that felt very odd because it used to not be the case.

February 28 – The LEGO Movie. I don’t nearly go to the movies as often as I would like. This movie was worth it.

March 22 – Housewarming Lena. It’s funny to think back to this; back when we were not yet so clingy. It was a good party.

April 1 – Hearth’s Warming Con Indiegogo starts. This was a very big moment, as this marked the sale of the first of our tickets.

April 8 – Keys to my house. The second step towards adult life this year. It’s still an awesome house (even though it’s still a mess from our New Year’s pre-pre-party). Also the day that this very blog got launched.

April 11 – First night in my house. The first of very many. Also, this was my first entry for I Never, a project I hope to continue for many more months.

April 26 – King’s Day. The first King’s Day in a long time. Spent it with my favorite little sister in Amsterdam, where we tried our best to trade ourselves rich.

May 19 – Internet in my new house! Finally I was able to actually live in my house. I was so enthusiastic about it I messed up the wiring. Ah well, I still have Internet now.

June 7 – Housewarming round 1. What good is a house of your own if you don’t have parties? This first housewarming featured a bunch of bronies and a barbecue. Shout-out to A-Z Barbecue for being the best barbecue catering there is!

June 15 – Final day of the Indiegogo. We made it, and with much more than we thought we would get. From this moment on, Hearth’s Warming Con 2015 was definitive.

June 27 – Housewarming round 2. This time with friends from Almelo and Enschede. It was not very busy, but still a nice party.

July 7 – Crystal Fair. Read the related entry. It was awesome. Want to do it again.

August 1 – Galacon. That was rough. But fun. But rough.

August 17 – First time D&D. It’s a very fun game, but my god is it difficult to get everyone together. Busy schedules all over the place. Fun fact: at the time of this writing, we have had 2 sessions, with a third planned near the end of this of Month.

August 21 – Middelburg. Went on a four-hour train ride with Ryah just to buy chocolate. Good times.

August 27 – Salsa lesson. My first and only salsa lesson. I suck at it and my timing was really bad (I had to skip the first three/four lessons because of scheduling issues).

September 13 – Color Run Utrecht. Extremely awesome, will do again and I can recommend it to everyone.

September 19 – KIIIRAAAA.

October 4 – Housewarming round 3. Not really a party-party, but it was the first time my family saw my new house. Now that I think about it, that’s a pretty big gap between the moment I got it and this day.

October 11 – Birthday party, co-hosted with Roy. Not in my house this time, because we invited more people than would fit. There were a few people staying over, so more fun!

October 17 – Noodle dinner. It’s been over two years since we visited Korea and China. How the time flies. We had a dinner in a Korean restaurant in Amsterdam. It was so delicious. I ate so much. It was awesome.

October 31 – Walibi Fright Night. Fun, fun, fun!

November 6 – Waving goodbye to the people of USB 2014, the follow-up to Noodle. Since I’m no longer studying in Enschede, I didn’t follow much of the preparations. It looked pretty good, and I was just a teeny bit jealous of what they were planning to do. Then again, the things that would happen during the next few months totally make up for that.

November 8 – My very own car.

November 26 – Most important day of my life. This day, after the Hearth’s Warming Con meeting, I told Lena I had a crush on her. And luckily, she felt the same about me. After this point, my life has been a pretty big roller coaster of having fun, stressing out because I have so much stuff to do and missing Lena whenever we’re apart. Luckily, it’s mostly fun.

November 28 – Committee day. It’s good to do something fun with the people you work with, even if it’s not a regular paid job. We got a tour through a bit of Amsterdam, played a bit of pool and enjoyed a great sushi dinner.

December 13 – Utrecht meet. One of the best meets of the year. Will attend again for sure.

December 29 – New Year’s Party. Or at least, the start of it. A four-day party to celebrate the turn of the year with some of the best people I know.

A weird year indeed, especially the last few months. But it’s those months that have been the best I’ve ever had. And I’m very happy to see more of that coming in the next year. A brief look at what’s planned.

In February, the biggest event I’ve been working towards this past time: Hearth’s Warming Con 2015. I’m nervous, but also very excited. It will be the culmination of our efforts to bring a big party to the brony community.

I’m also planning a hitchhiking holiday with Lena. Just the two of us, with endless possibilities of where we will go. Our plan is to go to London, but that may change at any time.

Furthermore, I am planning on doing the Alphabetical Eating challenge and the No challenge, but I will explain more about those when I do them, because I’m pretty sure they will become I Never entries.

And that’s just the start of it. Next year will have a new Sail event, we will visit Emmen Zoo while it’s still in the inner city and I’m hoping to attend a Piano Guys concert.

So, there’s more than enough fun to be had. This year will be a good year.