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…

It might be my imagination but I get the feeling that Britain’s Got Talent’s contestants have a lot more talent than our Dutch counterparts in Holland’s Got Talent. I’m sure you can all remember Paul Pott‘s sudden performance as well as Susan Boyle. There were many other amazing acts but I was watching the contestants for 2010 and can’t help but notice these:

Tobias Mead

Besides giving me some amazing tracks by The Prodigy (Invaders Must Die; Omen), Tobias Mead’s performance in his semi finals is just breathtaking. I just love how he manipulates the floating ball through his fluid movements. His audition and finals were strong as well with clever usage of his jacket by wearing it backwards; but my favorite is definitely his semi final performance.

Twist and Pulse

Their amazing moves according to every different segment of the track make me laugh and leave me in awe.

The patient was an older lady who had liver cancer. During the surgery, they saw that a tumor had attached to the diaphragm and therefore got very difficult to remove. It seems that they punctured the diaphragm in the process which took a lot of time to fix. After they fixed the diaphragm, another surgeon was called to do an echo. It was probably to make sure they had the right part of the liver and to see from where to where they had to cut. Our surgeon let us knew what he’d be removing by showing the parts on the pictures but in reality, it was a lot bigger. It sure looked like as if about 75% of the liver was removed. As said before, I was finally able to take some photos and it can be clearly seen there how big the dissected part was. After the resection, we were allowed to feel the liver and its tumors. It was amazing. Again, I made videos of that too. Last but not least, I was allowed to stand really, really close to him so I could take some photos from up close. He’s an example of how every surgeon should be: an expert in his field and one willing to teach others. The surgery took over 4.5-5 hours but it was worth every second of it.

Surgery was never a field I had a particular interest in (nor a disinterest), but after seeing these surgeries, I must say that it has grown on me. Who knows…

WARNING: The videos and photos are not for the faint of heart.

Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection
Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection 2
Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection 3

Gallery is after the break.

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.

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.

I was left in awe when I saw this short film for the first time. It might seem cruel at first, but if you think about it…That kiwi bird must have been working his whole life to achieve the one thing he wanted: to be able to fly. A very inspiring movie. Kudos to Madyeti47.

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).

Guys, do you recognize yourselves? Become Street Fighter yourself!