Life's crazyness wrapped in a wall of text

When Idols first premiered in The Netherlands, many people (including me) were hooked. For once you were able to see the artists progressing and battling each other for the first place. And we were given a chance to give our voice as well. Oh and let’s not forget the hilarious auditions either. It was a refreshing newcomer on TV albeit it was copied from the USA.

However, the enthusiasm didn’t last very long for me. There are a few reasons why I lost interest after pretty much just one season of Idols:

• The winners never appear to be anything special after their show ended. There were some cases where the number two actually had more success  than the number one. Wasn’t the goal of such series to search for an extraordinary artist out of many, many people? I think I’m a bit naive here; it’s obviously about the TV ratings and they probably could care less about the finalists.
• The many spin-offs made the whole refreshing experience rotten. Spin-offs such as Dancing With the Stars, Dancing on Ice, Popstars, X-Factor…pretty much ruined it.

Britain’s Got Talent however, is quite an exception…

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Nothing much happened throughout the day. We were pretty much waiting for the house party of the man who is organizing Ferrara Maastricht Academic Medical Exchange (F.A.M.E.) at 17:30. Just as we were about to leave with the group and a couple of cars, all of a sudden a sand storm caught our attention. Boy had we no idea of what was to come. It began to rain and the wind got a lot worse. It was something I’ve never seen before and it seems that it’s not something that has ever happened here according to our (Italian) drivers. Quite a unique experience, even though it was devastating for the complex. Many windows were broken by the wind and even the roof of part of the complex collapsed. Either it was a really poorly structured building or people just didn’t think this would ever happen. I tried to make some videos and photos of it.

The storm quickly resolved and we were able to go to the house party. I had something in mind (some kind of villa; I thought the man would probably be quite wealthy). I was close. Wow, that house was huge. And very beautiful. Especially the surroundings were breathtaking and very tranquil. The food we were offered: delicious, just delicious. Real, Italian food. Man, it was good. Do you mind if we come again, sir?

Videos:

Ferrara Day 24: Storm
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 2
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 3

Gallery is after the break.

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I don’t like rap music at all, but I must say this Youtube video was quite entertaining.

I remember the days when I got my Gameboy and Super Mario Land was my second game (Tetris being the first). Boy, this game was fun…and frustrating. Death was around every corner and continues were so very limited. Gaming sure has become soft compared to the ol’ days…Which doesn’t necessarily have to be bad but some current games really need to check their definition of “normal” and “hard” first.

My anticipation for this game has never been higher. Square-Enix’ latest anagram “A Henchmen Inventor Tent Unto” gave us “Announcement Nov Thirteenth” and as promised, they gave us something alright. A release date, to be exact, through this (somewhat cheesy, yet epic) video. Especially the gameplay at 3:55 was really nice. I cannot wait for 9 March 2010!

What a wonderful little game Frozenbyte has brought us: Trine. While a bit on the short side, it’s been a while since I enjoyed a side scroller this much. The graphics are great (the game surprisingly asks alot of your videocard), the gameplay is amazing and the music is just spot on.  In fact, I’m listening to the OST right now. Composed by Ari Pulkkinen, he’s certainly one to be followed for his future works.  The game was a bit too easy because the checkpoints resurrects your heroes and gives them a certain amount of health. That’s a good thing ofcourse, but not when quite a few battles take place NEAR the checkpoints, giving you the oppertunity to gain health each time you’re getting hit. The only time I died a lot was the last stage. Unfortunately, the game didn’t have any boss battles. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the game.

I’ve taken the oppertunity to record my playthrough and uploaded the videos on Youtube in HD quality. Level 2 is shown after the cut, the rest can be found here (playlist).

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