As you might have noticed, this blog has been offline for a while because of a breakdown of the server. The campus, where Ninniach is located, has had some power-outs and some internet difficulties lately. Ninni didn't always get up again by herself and we had to 'manually' fix that. Then one day (the 19th of November) an electrician came by to check on the power installation in the flat where Ninni resides. And he did the checking by turning power off and on three times in a row. Without warning people... so... some computers were fried, including Ninni.

The video card had been broken for a while, but since I mostly use Putty to connect to Ninni from my laptop, that was not a problem. Until Ninni was broken so badly that she didn't get to the point where ssh and the likes were started. Checking what the problem was required close contact with a monitor and thus a video card. Since Matthijs has a very busy life and I lack the knowledge of the inner workings of computers it took some time before we got around to fixing things. Matthijs spent last Monday evening reinstalling (again...) everything. Fortunately no data was lost and all Evolution Events photo's and the gallery were restored. Just in time for the photo's of Lextalionis IV.

Other news
The Musilon study weekend has come and gone. I did write a small report about it, but it is in Dutch and I don't much feel like translating. It was a nice weekend with lots of practising, a humoristic workshop of 'presentation on stage' and a minor food poisoning on Sunday, which luckily didn't last the whole day.

Then last Monday there were auditions for the upcoming Winter Concert. Just one week earlier Renske and Marjoke announced that they needed a third voice for the song they wanted to perform, and I volunteered. So we practised on Friday and Sunday evening and last Monday we had to perform in front of almost the whole choir. I was a bit nervous and it was our first time with piano accompaniment, but apparently it worked out fine because we were allowed to proceed practising for the upcoming concert. Some improvements were mentioned: like Renske and I have to produce more sound, sing harder. That's not a problem for me, but since I was uncertain if I had the right notes, I didn't dare to put much volume in it.

Tonight I will be practising a bit of theater/dance with Kor, one of the tenors for the song 'Embracable You'. Next concert I'll be in the spotlights. Exciting!

Yesterday Musilon had a Masterclass jazz by Adrienne West. In the morning we practised our 4 songs and around 14:00 Adrienne came and started the masterclass. She gave us instructions on how to improve our singing, took people out of the choir and did exercises with them. It was really educational and fun. She has a good sense of humor.

My parents and their partners, and my grandparents from mother's side where there. So was Matthijs. My grandpa made some pictures and short videos.

After the masterclass, which ended at 16:30, I went home for an hour and then met up with some people to go to the city for dinner. We had arranged dinner in a restaurant. It was good food for little money (lots of students with Musilon), and I had a good time. Went home around 23:00 and spend some time with Matthijs on the couch, chilling.

Next weekend we have the Musilon study weekend. A weekend of repetitions in a "kampeerboerderij", with cake and games and gourmet. We will be practising for the winter concert (21st of December, you're all invited).

Other fun stuff:
I have a new tablet! It's a Bamboo, black with some blue lights, black pen. All very shiny. And it works great! The surface of the tablet is not as slippery as some others I've seen, which is exactly how I want it. There's short keys on the tablet itself, and even a scrolling and zooming device. I even use it instead of my mouse now. :-)

Yesterday my mother and her girlfriend came by for a visit. We walked the dogs and played an un-finished game of Munchkin. Then we ate pancakes, which Matthijs baked, and they went home again, taking the car that I had borrowed from my mom.

Today Matthijs went to the NPC day of Lextalionis, so I was home alone. I started on an oil painting, went to the 'bouwmarkt' to get electricity-saving lamps (14 of them). Bought some other useful stuffs and went home again.

When I got home, I unpacked and installed the shopping loot and went out to harvest some nice autumn leaves, red twigs and pink capsules ('zaaddozen'). The capsules are drying at the moment, but the twigs and leaves have already been turned into a nice bouquet with maple-leaf-roses. I also made some bouquets without the twigs, with only leaves and leaf-roses. One of those bouquets is hanging in the stair well of the flat, the other is standing on my desk.

Cooked some dinner for myself (courgette, rice, fish sticks), did the dishes and asked Neighbour (one of Matthijs' flatmates) if he would like to play a game of Warcraft III with me. Since the answer was 'yes', I'm now at Matthijs' flat, waiting for Bert to finish his dinner.

Also have to put a project live for my work this evening. I think I'll do that right before starting the game, otherwise I'll forget or have to leave the game.