Despite it being the 14th time writing an end of year post (I had a different blog before this one), it just doesn’t get easier. But then again, writing is never easy for me. In the last few months in particular, it took a lot of effort to get words onto paper. I blame a summer of writing increasingly more urgent requests to the housing co-op to fix the roof. I mean, I love pools, but I don’t want to wake up to one in my living room ever again. By now it’s become a funny story to tell at parties, but this whole situation did take a lot out of me energy wise, and being drained of energy isn’t conductive to creating.
All in all I did manage to write and post 78 posts in total, so 39 per language, this post included. The most popular post was my rant on why I hate the song “Africa” by Toto, though my posts about interpersonal relationships never ending in a natural way anymore due to social media, failure 2.0 and my reasons for never wanting to be part of a writing community anymore also led to conversations and “I feel the same way”‘s. On top of that, I got heartwarming responses to the post in which I write about my lack of comfort zone due to my general anxiety disorder. Also, commenting on instagram, both on posts or in DMs is the new commenting underneath your post in the comment box. Just so you know.
Like every year, I will be on a scheduled internet break from now until January 3. In my time off, I will try to add some books to my “read” pile on Goodreads, because 8 non study books is, yeah. I did however (re)read a lot of articles and study books, because as my loyal followers on Instagram already know, I have rebooted my thesis project. As soon as I’m done, you’ll be the first to know.
On to the round up:
Read – Online
Why the Maastunnel is so important to Rotterdam, an article about the history of the Maastunnel.
Waking Up at 5 a.m. Isn’t Enough to Make You a Successful Entrepreneur.
A short documentary on how modern insta make up is influenced by drag.
A mysterious meat allergy, caused by ticks. I do want to add two things: 1) I really can’t deal with the dramatic “My life is basically over because I can’t eat (certain) meats anymore!!!”. There are billions of vegetarians in the world, who manage just fine. Of course I’m biased, but I’d say that becoming vegetarian/vegan is a better option than munching on f*cking emus, but hey. 2) This piece just reinforced my opinion that we need to cut out all animal everything from medications and vaccines. Pigs need their own heart valves and they can’t give informed consent. And if there was no green monkey extract in vaccines, we wouldn’t have to painstakingly check if this green monkey extract will set of an allergic reaction in people with this particular meat allergy. And I will never have to wonder if I’ve been injected with green monkey extract the last time I got a vaccine.
Music from the series Bagpuss has been released on LP and CD. For those who have no clue what a Bagpuss is, here’s an interview with the creator.
Did you know a Dutch doctor invented the artificial kidney?
How to create a realistic face prosthetic.
Hairdresser Oribe Canales passed away.
I never wanted to go on a cruise ship as just looking at one from a distance terrifies me, but after reading this article I’m definitely never setting foot on one: Why do people keep falling off cruise ships?
How to get over productivity guilt? One day I’ll manage to overcome this. One day.
What can we learn from people who succeed later in life? Especially the line “If you are repeatedly failing at breaking through, you may very well be pursuing the wrong vocation” hit me like a ton of bricks.
Similar to my post about Failure 2.0, Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant wrote an article about the trend among social media celebrities to be “vulnerable”, and how relatability and money relates to this.
Listened to – Music
I do not agree with the Dutch fireworks policy (hint: it’s a mess), but if you do decide to light some explosives on fire while drunk, please wear eye protection. Dutch rapper Donnie was asked to write a PSA about it:
“Knal” means “pop” as in the sound something exploding makes and “planga” is a slang word for “sunglasses”. /Dutch lesson
Listened to – Podcasts
None, apparently?
Watched – Films and Documentaries
I only saw Dutch language documentaries this month, that I only list in the Dutch version of this post.
Gezien – TV en Youtube
The iconic IAMsterdam letters are gone. Despite this gif I made a years ago
when this monstrosity was blocking my view, I will miss it. It really is an end of an era.
Miscellaneous awesomeness
Mitch Hedberg talking about how he’s the one that gets to decide how many bedrooms his house has and where those bedrooms are situated. For those thinking “This is the funniest shit ever!” this is a clip from his show Mitch All Together.
That’s it! Thank you all for reading, liking and commenting (both here and on insta), I’ll be back on January 3rd!
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