Another Youtube One

I wonder how long these guys had to practice to get this right!

Finished!

I just finished reading the last Harry Potter.
I will say just one thing:
It was brilliant!

Still..

I was reading some of my old posts on my Blog.
I put this list om my Blog on August 19, 2005:

Five books I started reading but haven't finished (yet):
-Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
-The Horse And His Boy by C.S. Lewis
-The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
-Love and Freindship by Jane Austen
-Wuthering Heights by Emily Bront


Ahum....the only one I finished in the meantime is The Horse and His Boy, so lots more reading to do...

HP Nerd

I'm such a nerd.
Two days ago I went to Waterstone's at midnight to buy the last Harry Potter book.
Maybe that's a bit stupid, but on the other hand, it's only in big cities like Amsterdam where stuff like this happens, and since I live here I thought I should eperience something like this.
The book sale started at 1 am. It was very busy!
There was a loooong line of people waiting to get in to buy a copy.
There was this really fun atmosphere. All around I heard people talk about nothing then Harry Potter.
Anyway, I'm gonna continue reading, I haven't finished yet, so don't spoil the ending!

What's Up?

So, It's been a while since I blogged.
I put all kinds of random stories and pictures on my blog, but nothing that's really about me.
Here's a little update:

Work has been good, but very busy. But I still enjoy it very much, thanks for a large part to my colleaugues, who are all really cool.
I've been at this job for almost a year. This will be the first job ever that I've been at for longer than a year. So that's a good sign.

In september I'm going to the US and Canada! I'm so excited and I can't wait to go!
First I'll go to Meghan in Calgary, and I will get to see the Rocky Mountains, and then I'll go to Laurissa in Pennsylvania. Hopefully we will go to New York, where I would really love to go!
And maybe Chrissy will come to Pennsylvania too, it would be great to see her too!

Two days ago I took a jazz dance class. It was something I've been wanting to do for a long time. It was fun, but really hard! I did not expect that. Okay, it's been years since I regularly took dance classes, but I thought I was better! Actually, I thought the class would be easier. It was a class for beginners, but I thought it was more suitable for people who have more experience.
Now al my mustles ache, haha! I will try another class next week, from a different instructor, so hopefully that one will be a bit easier.

What else? Honestly, I've been waiting for Mr Right :)
Not desperately, but it would be nice if he showed up.
There's no lack of male attention, but it's never from anyone I would be interested in.
On the other hand, I like my independent single life. I can do what I want!

As you can see in the previous post, I MISS THE SUN!
One of my colleagues sent me this 'MISSING' thing, I thought it was kinda funny, so I copied it, I just replaced the 'F-word' by *@#%@#%*, haha!

A few weeks ago I went to my aunts wedding. It was really really nice. We had a very fancy dinner with the weirdest stuff to eat. I had 'coquilles', which is some kind of shellfish, and I had 'shrimp bisque cappucino'. It sounds weird, and it kinda was. I laughed so much that night, because there was one guy at our table who made the funniest comments about the food. It's actually not a bad idea to serve interesting food at a wedding. The people there might not know eachother, and when you serve something 'different' at least people will have something to talk about.
It's better than a whole evening of talking about what job you do, and where you live.

Well. I think this should be all for now.

LOTS OF LOVE!

MISSING!

ROUND YELLOW THING USUALLY FLOATS AROUND IN THE SKY!!!
ANSWERS TO THE NAME ''SUN''
IF U SEE HIM TELL HIM IT'S *@#%@#%* JULY!!!

HERE'S A SKETCH ARTIST 'S IMPRESSION RELEASED BY THE POLICE TODAY

A Very Happy Song From 'FAME'

New 3D ID

Countries I've Been

And hopefully (probably) to be added soon: The USA and Canada !!!!!

Love this piece!

I FOUND IT AT CHRISTIANITYTODAY.COM/SINGLES

Singles in the Hands of a Manipulative God?
by Camerin Courtney
May 9, 2007

I read it again recently. The notion that we singles need to surrender our desire to wed as a true Christian posture toward our singleness.

Most recently it was an account by a married woman, a respected author and church leader, writing about her long-ago single years. As a young woman, she'd desired to get married. But as she began to pursue her ministry calling, she felt the need to surrender completely to God her longing for marriage. With much prayer and intentionality, she did.

And of course, a couple years later she met the man who's now her husband of several decades.

I'm not sure she said so in so many words, but there was the implication that God needed to know he had her whole heart before he was willing to let her "share" it with a man. As I read her account, I somehow felt like a lesser Christian for still wanting to get married. I've read this kind of advice in several singles books over the years—always given by now-married individuals who once gave up the desire for their current marital status. And this "theology" of singleness has rubbed me the wrong way. I've always thought it painted God in a manipulative light—intentionally not giving us something when we want it, and then thrusting it upon us once we don't. Like a crafty parent using reverse psychology on his children.

Now, I don't doubt that God does prompt some singles to give up the desire to marry for some specific reason; it's when this advice becomes prescriptive to all that I get a tad squeamish. And of course the desire to marry can become an idol, and the Bible is very clear that we're not to have any "gods" before him (Exodus 20:3). When that's the case, certainly we need to readjust our priorities.

But I have a hard time synching up this conditional distribution of gifts—this idea that we need to achieve a certain mindset before the blessing of marriage will be bestowed upon us—with the God of unconditional love. I love that we have a come-as-you-are God. A God who loved us and sought us when we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). A God who doesn't expect us the clean up our mess before we come to him but who meets us right in the mess. I fear we lose that beautiful reality when we start assigning benchmarks to his blessings. I wonder if some of this thinking comes from our discomfort with longing. In our fast-food, quick-fix culture, longing is rare and feels outdated. And when we long for things—good, God-created things like a spouse and children—and pray for these things and they still don't come to pass, we can begin to wonder if the longing is misplaced or wrong.

While the answer may be "no" in some circumstances, in others it may be "not yet." And in the waiting, it's easy to get all kinds of uncomfortable with our longing. Wrestling with spiritual questions or self-doubt. Wondering if he hears us or if we're just wanting the wrong things.

Thankfully, God isn't uncomfortable with our longing and unmet desires.

I think of the story in Matthew 20:29-34, when Jesus was leaving Jericho and came across two blind men on the roadside, shouting, "Lord, son of David, have mercy on us!" Though the crowd rebuked them, Jesus called, "What do you want me to do for you?"

"Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."

Jesus didn't stop and ask them if they'd given up their desire for sight, if their whole heart was fully focused on him, if they'd made peace with their blindness. No, he "had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him" (v. 34).

This wasn't an unusual occurrence. Many times people approached Jesus with desires and needs, and often his recorded words are similar to this passage: "What do you want me to do for you?"

Not that he's Santa and always grants these wishes. But he wants to hear the desires of our heart. He's comfortable with our longing, our wanting. Especially when we bring it to him. And in the end, I think that's the key. It's what we do with these longings, where we take them that really matters.

When we bring our desire for a spouse to God, we realize there's no guilt in desiring the good things he created. That the God who's all we need, also created us for relationship—and often meets us in the arms and voice and presence of our loves ones and our brothers and sisters in Christ. That there's ample room in our heart for God and his people here on earth.

So unless God directs me otherwise, I'm going to keep on desiring to get married. And I'm going to keep on taking this desire to him. Confident that he's listening, that he'll correct me if the desire becomes an idol, that I'm no less of a Christian for the wanting, and that he'll meet me in this messy journey of longing.

Wise words

“ Love and fear cannot exist in the same space” - Author unknown

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live" - Norman Cousins

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it "- Rumi

"What is Holland?"

Haha! Seinfeld rules, and I'm addicted to Youtube....

I love the Dixie Chicks!

MAKES WE WANNA BE A COUNTRY SINGER :)

This week so far...

It's my week off from work, yay!

On saturday I went to Christina G's birthday, which was fun, and I got to meet Christina C there as well! Christine G's dad made the most amazing cakes, yummy!

Queensday was cool. I kinda like the party atmosphere in the city! I went to Museumplein in the afternoon and listened to DJ Jean and Het Feestteam, haha! Next year I wanna see DJ Tiesto at Museumplein!
After that I hung out with Christina C, Jacoline, Harmen and Jan Pieter, that was cool.

Yesterday we had another little Shelter Reunion. We had a picnic in Westerpark and then some of us went to a cafe for a drink. This was also a lot of fun!!!

Tomorrow I'm flying to Krakow to see Magda, yay!
Looking forward to it! When I'm back I'll write more.

Good week so far. Very nice.

Looking Forward To:

-A whole week off from work
-A visit from Christina C.
-Another little Shelter reunion
-Queensday
-Visiting Magda in Poland
-Christina G's birthday
-More sunny days

And what's best: this will all take place within the next 2 weeks! Yay!


Me, happy

Voor Cecilia, haha! :)

Bonoism

So, there's a ton of different types of religion, like buddism, hinduism, taoism etc.
Then within Christianity there's all these sub-divisions ( I'm sure that's not the official term for these things, but you get it), like protestantism and catholicism.
And I think a new type has been sneaking up on us... it's Bonoism.
Seriously, how often can one quote Bono without making it sound like he's some kind of saint?
And then we have these discussions to figure out whether he is a 'real' Chrsitian or not.
And when we come to the conclusion that he is, we're so happy. Not because he's saved, but because the we can idolize him without feeling guilty.


Anyway, I watched a U2 concert in DVD last night.
It was great...
And hardly a day goes by when I don't listen to a U2 song....
And Bono does have a lot of good stuff to say......

Dang!

Falling out of love...

About two years ago I came here. And I got to know him pretty quickly. At first I didn't like him that much.
But everyone kept telling me how great he was. Well, the more you tell me how great something is, the less I'm willing to feel the same, so I chose to feel the opposite. So I didn't like him for a while. But then as I saw more and more of him I started to really like him. Against my will. I couldn't stop myself. I guess I gave in then, and I have loved him very much ever since. Even though there are bad points in him as well. Sometimes he is so busy, and loud, and sometimes even scary...

Thought I was talking about a guy?

No, I was talking about Amsterdam. The thing is, I think I'm kinda falling out of love with Amsterdam. Lately I've been annoyed with how busy, and loud, and crazy the city is. Especially the public transport drives me nuts! ;)
Maybe I've reached the point where being in love turns into loving, or not. I believe that it's a choice to love. So, I gotta make a choice. Am I gonna love Amsterdam or not? Don't know yet. The good thing is that you can fall in love all over again, and again, and again. I'm pretty sure that will happen when in summer I'll be spending my free time in a sunny Westerpark :)

Suntanning

I know it's barely spring, but today I have been sitting on the roof terrace (!!!) at my house.
It was warm and sunny and I already got a bit of a tan! :)

Can you be addicted to sunshine?

Blonde

One of my colleagues sent us this joke:

First class blonde

A plane is on its way to London when a blonde in Economy Class gets up and moves to the First Class section and sits down.
The flight attendant watches her do this and asks to see her ticket.
She then tells the blonde passenger that she paid for Economy and that she will have to go and sit in the back.
The blonde replies "I'm blonde, I'm beautiful, I'm going to London and I'm staying right here!"

The flight attendant goes into the cockpit and tells the pilot and co-pilot that there is some blonde bim-bo sitting in First Class that belongs in Economy and won't move back to her seat.
The co-pilot goes back to the blonde and tries to explain that because she only paid for Economy she is only entitled to an economy place and she will have to leave and return to her original seat.
The blonde replies, "I'm blonde, I'm beautiful, I'm going to London and I'm staying right here!"

Exasperated the co-pilot tells the pilot that it was no use and that he probably should have the police waiting when they land to arrest this blonde woman that won't listen to reason.
The pilot says, "You say she's blonde? I'll handle this, I'm married to a blonde, and I speak blonde!"

He goes back to the blonde, whispers in her ear, and she says "Oh, I'm sorry - I had no idea," gets up and moves back to her seat in the economy section.
The flight attendant and co-pilot are amazed and asked him what he said to make her move without any fuss.

The Pilot replied:”I told her First Class isn't going to London".

Okay, it's a bit lame, blonde jokes.
But I'm actually considering going blonde. I already started with some highlights :)