And this is why I'm grateful I went to University in Europe instead of the US...

And that's just for PUBLIC Universities! How can people afford a University education with prices like those?! Shall I scare you with my tuition fees? Less than 1000€ / year! (I don't remember the exact amount) I managed to pay for my Master's Degree in Belgium (which was even less since got a "low income" -thx to my dad having retired a few years before- reduction in fees) and cover my living expenses just by working part time teaching English and doing translations. And since I registered for the PhD programme in Belgium I've only been paying administrative fees after my initial full tuition... fees which rose to 30€ this year, oh my! I get that money back just on the student discounts I get at movie theatres throughout the year...

Revamping...

Well, what do you think? Like the new look and layout? I DO!!! :o)

I should have switched to the "Blogger in Draft" dashboard months ago! They've just made new templates available. A pretty wide variety that are very easy to change as much as you'd like! Not just background colours and fonts, but photos, number of columns, widths... Me likes!!!

I also discovered the new "pages" option that appear like tabs at the top of the blog. "Non-changing" pages that are there to welcome people (or whatever you want). Check them out and tell me what you think!

I've pretty much spent my Saturday afternoon fiddling with this... good thing to do on a dreary day when one is still stuck inside (I want to go to the movies!!!). This template made me think of Spring. Maybe I'll try out a different one for summer...

If you want to play with it for yourself go here:

http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/

Have fun!

The electronic book revolution

I've just read a very interesting article pleading the case of e-books. More than pleading, rejoicing over the advances in technology that many fear will lead to the "end of books as we know them". You know, the Kindle, the iPad etc...

I've been kind of divided on the subject since the Kindle hit the stores and the topic has become more and more frequent lately. 

Foot update

Sorry if I appear to have pulled a disappearing act, this whole foot situation has gotten me so down I didn't really feel like writing anything! So haven't finished putting together Monthly Reading, Fishy Fridays or a couple of Oscar-related posts I had lined up. :s

If you ever get a bad sprain/break etc... don't think the pain in your foot is going to be the worst part. Nope, when that's over you have to deal with CRUTCHES!!! Hopping from here to there is exhausting, doing anything seems to take twice as much effort, your hands feel so sore that just pressing them against anything else makes them hurt and your back is going to start complaining about being unbalanced. Oh, and showers... showers are HELL! Trying balancing on a stool in the tub...

...with your foot & calf wrapped in saran wrap and dangling out of the tub just in case (so as not to get the bandages wet). 

Yeah, oodles of fun (voice dripping with sarcasm there). Well at least my abdominal muscles have been getting a workout holding that position. And my biceps. "Thanks" to the crutches I might actually have biceps by the time I'm through with all this! :p

Last Thursday when I woke up what little I could see of my foot sticking out of the bandages was all swollen and PURPLE! 

Kind of freaked me out seeing as how it hadn't been that colour the night before... Even tried washing it in case it was just dirty but wouldn't come off... so headed off for another trip to the ER (fuuuuun... fortunately had a book with me that time) and ended up getting told off by the Doc for not resting enough and keeping my foot up! Apparently the doctors and I have a different opinion on what "keeping my foot up" means. For me it was just not putting any weight on it and otherwise trying to keep doing normal routine stuff (like going to teach my English classes). For them it meant "reposo absoluto" as much as possible and with my foot UP as in above my waist up... Oops! Also more cold on it. So I spent as much of the weekend as possible lying on the sofa or bed, with my foot up on a pillow and a bag of frozen russian salad veggies on top. Brrrr!!! and BORING!!! Plus I can't very well sit at the computer and have my foot up... so not much time around here! :o(

Well, at least now I'm rid of that terribly itchy wrapping from my foot up my calf. Went to see the Traumatologist (is that the correct name in English for that kind of specialist?) yesterday and he released my foot from its dungeon, ordered up 10 sessions of rehab, and told me to use a removable ankle support thingy (like athletes!) during the day. Still can't use my foot (as in to walk, drive etc), so still stuck with the crutches and limited in the things I can actually do for myself, but man did it feel good this morning getting a shower without my foot dangling over the edge! Oh, plus washing it, definite bonus! :p

Still looks damn scary though:

But at least the Easter Egg is gone! ;o)

Monthly Movies: February'10

Also known as the "preparing for the Oscars" edition! (with one notable exception) Three best picture nominees, one which should have been (imho), and one pure piece of fluff I wish I had seen something else instead of... ;o)

Is it 2012 already?!

 Seriously, with all the wacky Mother Nature gone wild stuff that's started off 2010, you'd think maybe the Mayans were 2 years off their "end of the world" date!

Ever seen an Easter Egg sticking out of a foot?

Voilà!

doesn't look like a foot? allow me:

Discombobulate

This is fun!

I'll have to remember to keep an eye out for this soundtrack when prices go down. Why is it that there are never special deals on soundtracks but yes on most other music? Why is it that the soundtracks on cd usually cost more than the movie itself on dvd?! Used to be I'd buy a couple of soundtracks per year, haven't bought one in ages... :o(

Oscars coming up soon!!! ;o)

Fishy Fridays ep.10

Welcome! Bienvenus! Wilkommen! Bienvenidos! Benvinguts! Benvenutti!

Time to really kick off Fishy Fridays 2010 edition by diving back into the Liège Aquarium! Remember, before Christmas we had just started off with the tropical section, so these are all fish from warm coastal zones, frequently reefs or mangroves. Don't forget to click on photos for a larger view (sorry if blurry, damn fish won't stop swimming even for a second!) and clicking on a fish's name will send you to its Fishbase page where you can find lots more info (namely distribution, diet, predators, reproductive habits, endangered status, size etc.), which I highly recommend since I was a bit busy this weekend and there were way too many fish involved for me to go too much in detail (also why this post is late, that and I need to remember to start writing these before the Friday, lol!).

Our special guests today include:

• someone who makes the Wicked Witch of the West seem pale by comparison
• a fish that will remind some readers of a certain Disney-friendly canine
• one of the most toxic fish in the world... who is nevertheless regularly consumed by humans... of the highly affluent variety
• and more! (it's a big tank, lol!)

that much left?!

I came across this little map thingy and thought I might try it out, see if I like it for when I start up that "travel blog" I mentioned in my New Year's Resolutions. So, I know I've travelled a lot, but these type of maps make it seem both like more and less than I've actually seen! More because I'm one of those people who doesn't like "counting countries" (although I've done it) and thinks you can't really say you've visited a country if you've only seen a city or two (which is why China isn't in red, I've only been to Hong Kong). And less because I tend to repeat visits... some of these places I've been to several times (and would love to go back).

One thing's for sure, I need to get myself to South America and Africa! :p

And HEY!!! where's Antarctica on this map? I can't forget those trips!!!


visited 30 states (13.3%)
Create your own visited map of The World

and looks like I've still got quite a bit of the US to cover as well...


visited 24 states (48%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Hmm... time to plan another trip? ;o)
I wish....

Monthly Reading: January'10

Oh dear, I've gone and done it again! Kept putting off writing about these books... and now it's a month later and oops! Plus for some reason it feels like I read so many in January (and some rather quickly), it won't be easy recreating the sensations when I read them each... damn! Here goes...

Lucky Penguin

So, have you heard the one about the penguin and the orcas? ;o)

I got one version of this video in an e-mail forward (thx dad!), and have since found a couple others on youtube (changes in music, this one has goofy penguin subtitles). Check it out:

Fishy Fridays ep. 9

We're baaaaaaack!!! :o)

I had wanted to put out a much more complete post to re-boot Fishy Fridays for 2010, but my body apparently had other plans (nasty cold!), so I'm just going to dip my toes in the shallow end with an addition to my favourite post so far (Fishy Fridays ep. 3), the one on dogfish! You remember, those small benthic sharks (also known as catfish for the smaller variety)? Here, this guy:

Well, shortly before I left Liège my roommate at the dorm followed me on a guided tour of the Aquarium, and it so happened that her camera could do video (the one drawback of my DSLR, no vids!). So I took her 'round back to see "behind the scenes" a bit, and we came across a tank with Dogfish eggs in it:

Do you remember my telling you these little critters spend 9 months in their eggs? (if not, click on that link up there to ep.3) And that at the very end you can actually make out the little shark through the egg sack by transparency?

Maybe I forgot to mention you can also see them "swimming" in there too... ;o)

Movie Magic: Coming Soon to an Ocean near you!

 On Earth Day 2010 (so I think that's April 22nd), DisneyNature (movies) brings you...

At least that's what they make it sound like... not much! Sounds like just another Disney production with cute animals and lots of action scenes... NOT!!!

Here's the real deal: Océans  

"one day, a child who discovered the sea asked me "the Ocean, what is the Ocean?""

From Jacques Perrin, the man behind Microcosmos and Le Peuple Migrateur (Winged Migration), an Ode to the seas. How I wish I had a trip planned to the other side of the Pyrenees so I could see it already! Will just have to wait 'till it pops up on Spanish screens, eventually...

Monthly Movies: January'10

A philosopher in Roman Egypt. A famous woman pilot. A father trying to reconnect with his children spread across the country. A couple looking for the perfect place to raise a family. An inspirational rugby match. Mastering the art of French cuisine. A movie director going through an existential crisis. The original (and most famous) sleuth.

Lots of movies (I can't believe last week I actually went 3 nights in a row!) and lots of diversity in the subjects! But I can tell I'm no longer in Liège: almost no non-US/UK movies (except for one, and that was filmed in English), sigh! Oh well, at least we're entering my favourite part of the year: that of excellent films hitting the screens in such abundance that it's almost Solomonic having to choose between them because you know you can't possibly catch them all (but I'm doing my best, lol!)