Favorite vocalists: female

The females!

5. Emilie Autumn (solo)



4. Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy)



3. Liv Kristine (Leaves' Eyes/solo)



2. Simone Simons (Epica)



1. Tarja Turunen (Solo)

Favorite vocalists: male

I decided to make my top 5 for favorite vocalist of each gender, starting with the males.

5.  Lauri Ylönen (Solo/The Rasmus)



4. Macro Hietala (Nightwish/Tarot/Northern Kings)



3. Alex Agnew (Diablo Blvd)



2. Enrique Iglesias



1.Roy Khan (Ex Kamelot)

Hardcore gamer

It's been a while since I wrote a blog about gaming...
The last few weeks I've been gaming pretty "hardcore". If I have nothing else to do, I pretty much game from around 10.00-11.00 until 22.00 or something. A lot that is. Of course I take a break (reading, writing, just lying in my bed,...) so my eyes can rest a bit.

The games I am currently playing are:

World of Warcraft on a roleplaying server. Right now I have 2 active roleplaying characters. A human mage called Liljah Lanismor and is around 22 years old. She has lost her parents because of the scourge and lived with her aunt and uncle. Recently she spread her wings and is trying to find her own way in the world.
My other char is a Night Elf (I prefer Kaldorei) Druid called Syriss "Sy" Moonwing. She about 800 years old and has fought at the Battle of Mount Hyjal. She's really fun to play since she always tries to hide her emotions because she thinks emotions make you look weak.
Well I love both my characters and i think they are amazing! I'm really proud that I made such a believable Kaldorei druid and I worked very hard at her history. Playing a 800 year old char isn't easy (and there are people playing 10 000 year old characters!!!!!) but it's so much fun.

Dungeon Siege III: So far this games has been a disappointment and I only just started! The controls are buuh and the game is very difficult. I don't like game's that are really hard. I always want to start of easy and if I managed to finish and the game is good enough to play again, I will try the harder modes as well. I'm thinking to try and start off with a different char. Perhaps a melee char would be easier to start of with...

Games I want to play:

Oblivion is an amazing game. I've spent already hours playing it, exploring the world and I'm so looking forward to the sequel, Skyrim. The only problem with this game is, as soon as I encounter a firebolt, my whole laptop crashes and believe me, it sucks big time. I'm going to try it again though, since I have had sume updates for my graphic card. Hopefully this will fix my issue. Else I'm going to be very disappointed.

The Witcher 2: I just bought this game this morning and I'l going to install it later today and try it out. It seems like an awesome game and I heard a lot of good things about it, so hopefully it won't be disappointing. I never played the first one, but who cares? 

Graspop 2011: Same Old Song!

One word to describe Graspop 2011 (well the Saturday) : EPIC.

I've been screaming, headbanging, almost moshing and dancing (wut dancing on metal?)

Diablo Blvd: They were so awesome. Alex was so happy that so many people came to listen to them and he first mosh pits, crow surfing and wall of death happened during the Diablo performance. I remember when I went to a performance of a rock band and they asked for a mosh pit... it's silly... how can you mosh on rock? It wasn't even hardrock.

Lacuna Coil: I sang/screamed so hard during their performance and they played all my favorite songs. Awesome! Best performance of the day!

Firewind: They were really good. I'm not a big fan of them, but I really like there sound. Ooh, and the singer is handsome.

Moonspell: Okay, it's not really my type of metal, but I could live with it.

Arch Enemy:  Only heard a few minutes because the marquee was so crowded and I am too small (and no damn screens!) and we decided we wanted a good spot for the next band. But well... Angela is just awesome!!

Pain: It started bad for me because it got pushed the whole time and they were stepping on my feet! Stupid lame ass moshpit! I kicked someone, hit a girl with a bottle and Timothy kicked a guy so hard that he flew two meters far... then I could start enjoying and dancing! Yes, dancing. Industrial metal ftw.

Cradle of Filth: I expected a lot of them, but was a bit disappointing. The music was great but the vocals muuh... He screamed so fucking high that my ears ached. And they didn't played songs from my favorite album (Thornography) but I was happy that I saw them live nonetheless.

Pottermore

Dear Rowling gave us something to look forward to after the last movie! I totally love her!

Starting to draw again: Dragons

I decided I want to start drawing again. I know I'm not an artist or anything and probably I will never be good enough to call myself that, but hey, I can try.
I decided to draw on paper and colour (or at least try) it in photoshop. Why not do both in photoshop? Because photoshop isn't meant to be be used to draw and a tablet and a pen are not... well... as good as a plain old pencil.

I decided to start with dragons. Dragons are so fun to draw and there is no right or wrong way to do it, since they don't existed (unless you count komodo dragons). The only thing you have to try is to balance. A giant dragon can't fly with small wings....  A dragon with very small hind legs and long front legs will have trouble walking. The only thing you need to think about is the skeleton and the intestines.

I have seen dragons with wings like birds, bats or even no wings. You have seadragons, earthdragons, icedragones etc...

So hopefully, you will see a dragon sketch / drawing appear here.

Wizards vs. Vampires

With this, I mean Twilight versus Harry Potter and, thought I like both, I know that Harry Potter is much much better. Why? Well J.K Rowling wrote 7 book and in all books (except the last) are so much clues, metaphors and hints to the next book or to the final book. The story also has a lot more depth.

Twilight is a really nice series about "forbidden love" but besides that, it doesn't go about much else and I'm sure there are a lot of books about forbidden love (for example, the Fallen saga).

Harry Potter is also a lot more popular. There are tons of site about Harry Potter, whole wiki's for Harry Potter. The community is just gigantic. And Harry Potter is British and Twilight is American, says enough already.

I was a bit angry that Twilight was copying Harry Potter 7 and split the last book in two movies, while I think they can fit everything in one movie which they couldn't do with Harry Potter.

If I had to chose what I would be, I would, without even doubting, be a wizard. They are so much cooler and interesting.  They can do cool and awesome jobs, they have dragons (woooh!) and they don't live for era's.

Hogwarts, here I come!

No more books

Yesterday night I finished my last book and now I am bookless.

I started in a book of my fiance, but I didn't like the style of the author, so it ended up on the bookshelves again. I'm really frustrated that I don't have anything to read right now. Even more because I have the money to buy a new book and the bookstore is only 5 minutes away, but I can't spent the money because I need to pay other stuff with it. 

I have transferred money from my bank account to my paypal to buy book the day before yesterday, but well it takes a few days and then the book need to be shipped and so I guess I won't have them this week so I think I'm doomed to rereading something... 

Almost Rodeo

Last Friday morning I had (like use all) my lesson horse riding (It's pretty funny that, after about 7 years, I can still learn so much! I love it.) and it was hellish. Amber had spent the whole week doing nothing except eating and walking around in the meadow because I had not much time to go to her and exercise her and it backfired at me completely. I couldn't ride in the arena (piste) because it was too slippery because of the rain and so I had to ride in the meadow. I manage to make it a bit similar to size of the arena thanks to the movable fence, but it was still bigger. I though: great! Now it's not going to be 3 gallop jumps and a turn.

I felt from the beginning that she was very difficult and in a bad mood. She just wouldn't listen to me and I had to pull harder at the reins and punish her for not listening. Eventually, she started to listen and halted when I said so. Time to trot. That was just horrible: she started of slow, but soon she just started to run so fast that I totally lost control and that was my mistake. I tried to do everything my instructor said, but I guess I was a bit too tense to do it right. After a lap of 3 she jumped in a gallop and raced (well, so felt it for me, but I was totally nervous and almost starting to get scared) around the arena and I couldn't bring her back. It was scary but I knew it was my mistake (but she shouldn't have jumped in gallop in the first place). I'm proud that I didn't start pulling at the reins as a maniac but to stop her, I had to turn her in a very small circle and I fell almost of her... but I have a better sit then I thought and I stayed on.

My teacher had ridden her a bit after that (at my request 'cause I just had to get off for a moment) and then it was my turn again. When she was speeding again, I just had to take a few deep breaths so I was calm enough to take her back using just my weight. The gallop was at one side not much better but at the (I think right side) it went pretty good. I was relax and I could hold her with me pretty good.

All by all a hard and tiring lesson, but I have learned a lot.

Emotional Trailer

Yesterday night the second trailer of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt2 has been released. This is very likely to be the last Harry Potter trailer....
I really liked the trailer and well it me my so excited and it gave me goosebumps. There is so much emotion in it. I have the feeling that this is going to be an epic end. A very impressive and good movie and hopefully, I am right.

A small note: J.K Rowling has released the name of her next project: Pottermore. No one what it is, but as soon as I know more, I will post it here.

Human & Animal: photography part 1

I decided to post some old work of mine, and discus it a bit.

(click on it to make it bigger and remember blogger down the quality a lot)

Note: this is not photoshopped! 

What I like about this picture: the composition, the place where the picture is the sharpest and the light.

The composition: there is a good balance in the shot: the cat is in the middle and at the rights side. I decided to put the hand at the left side so it wouldn't be empty. The colors are also nicely balanced. Very sober.

Sharpness:  I like it that the piece of pants and that most the cat (especially the nose) are sharp. I did this on purpose so the stands out. It's the most important part of the picture. The person (in this picture just "decor") is on the background.

Light: I think the light is pretty okay. There aren't any disturbing shadows and the cat isn't one black mass. You can see (except on some parts of his face) every hair, which is to me, very important.

Dislike: What is dislike on this picture is that the hand isn't very pretty. If the fingers were a little bit more open, it would have been better. Another thing I should have done was include the whole ruffle of his sleeve. Also the light is pretty cold and their is a lot of dust and hairs were there shouldn't be. But this is a photoshop work and since I don't have photoshop right now, I'm unable to do it.

I miss you like a fool, I admit it.

I absolutely love this song... it's so catchy but so good! And O love Lauri's voice. His a great singer and every time he brings out something knew, he seems to be better then before. 

And yes, I miss him, well The Rasmus, so much :(
I miss them like a fool I admit it.

Dogs

I've been two weeks home alone with my fiance and the cats but the dog went to stay with my sister. I missed her so much and tomorrow she is finally coming back! Yeah!

I really like dogs, but I'm really a "dog"person like they call it. I'm a horse person.
But my fiance really wants a dog later and I'm okay with that as long as I don't have to walk it everyday and as long as it isn't some insane expensive dog and I prefer one from the animal shelter or someone who sells his dog instead of buying a puppy from a breeder.
There are already a lot of dogs who are living on the streets, are being neglected and abused etc... so why encourage breeding  by buying a cute little puppy?

Okay, if you buy a puppy you can train it all by yourself and you know it since it was a little baby but there are so many older (sweet) dogs around who can use a loving family. It's not because you buy an older dog that you don't get a strong bond...

Another thing I don't get is why people want a particular breed. Okay some dogs look nicer then other dogs but you don't have to stick to a breed. You need to try to find a dog with a character that fits you. Okay, some types of breed are know for some special things, but that doesn't mean the dog you pick has them.
Every dog is different even thought they belong to the same breed.

I was talking with an internet "friend" earlier this week and she told me about her dogs. She has two Shiba Inu's and she said the young one was so much different then the old one. She had a lot of trouble raising her youngest one because he was such an evil little puppy. And one them (I can't remember which one) has a killer instinct and well she kills everything (except cats, humans and dogs) that she can reach. I know this breed is pretty "primitive" but this shows how a breed isn't defining for a character.

The most important thing about owing a dog is: taking good care of it.
In my eyes taking good care of a dog is: give them food and love, don't leave it alone home for more than a few hours and walk it every day, no matter what the weather is. I can't think of a dog that doesn't enjoy coming outside (unless it never has learned it). All the interesting scents, the sounds etc...

I watched a episode of the Dog Whisperer last week and there was a dog, I think it was a Shiba Inu, but I could be wrong (why do I hear/see a lot of these breed the last few weeks :s), and it had developed "behavior" problems because he only got to go out in the garden. Poor dog.

The other thing that I find funny is that dogs are so expensive! 950 euro's for a puppy seems to be a normal price... and people say horses are expensive... yeah right.

My "dream" jobs...

Lately I've been thinking what I really want to do in life to own money, 'cause you can't live without it. (Well you can, but it's a really hard life then).

The thing I really want to do in life is work with animals, preferably horses. But the horse business is really hard because you have to be really good at what you.  do and don't be "average" since it's a very popular business.
I would love to become a horse riding teacher, but I don't know if I can teach and I don't ride well enough yet. Another part of me wants to become a "horse whisperer" like it's called. A better name would be horse listener.
I think I'l pretty good with horses and I really try to understand their behavior and how they think. If i want to become a horse whisperer, I really need to become better in it and follow lessons and stuff.

I also have an interest to do more with my photography. I know if i work on it, I could get a lot better then I now am, but the hardest part is to be better then the average photographer. And, like with the horses business, this is a very popular business as well. But before I can even think of becoming, or trying, to get pro, I really need a better camera, preferably a middle format camera. I have two photographers I really look up to, because I love their style and would like to become as good as they are and that are: Viona Ielegems and Tim Flanch.

One thing i know for sure:

Now I am looking for a part time job in whatever and I want to do something with my Business Management degree and my limited knowledge of bookkeeping (?).

But I don't think I want to have my own business as my only source of income, because that is way to risky.

Maybe a tip for all of you: if you're planning to open your own business, always marry with a contract so when you have debts you can't pay, then can only your stuff be taken to pay the debts.

Ministry of Magic

I finally found this amazing band again. There music is so catchy and I just love the lyrics (well, I'm a HP addict, so how could I not?)

Who of you listen to them as well?

My two favorite songs are:


and

Clean up

I decided to clean up my blog, delete useless posts that don't add anything to my blog like, for example, the challenge stuff.