2011-06-16 18:05:00
It's no secret that I love the Phineas and Ferb cartoon on Disney XD. Great jokes, funny stories, good music and the dutch voice acting is great. Actually, just like I do with Invader Zim, I'd go so far as to say that the dutch voice acting is worlds beyond the original US casting. Either way, Dana likes the show as well and we make a point of watching it together on an almost daily basis. Cuddled under a blanket on the couch, what a way to start the evening! :)
One of my favourite episodes is the double-hitter "Joh, we brengen de band weer bij elkaar" ("Dude, we're getting the band back together"(Wikipedia)), which is a bit of a spoof of "Blues Brothers". Again, awesome music ^_^
Now, the character Baljeet reminds me of myself... A bit anal about rules and procedures, things need to be measurable/tangible, awkward in expressing emotions, very much into studying but slightly out of touch with "the real world" (tm). Hence, I have a special fondness for this song :) And yes, it's the dutch version...
kilala.nl tags: cartoons,
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2011-02-18 16:02:00
Source: Type 2000 going over the Yomase bridge, by Wamu8.
I love the old fashioned train model, but I have to admit I'd be a bit jittery about riding the train over that bridge. It's just barely wide enough to hold the rails themselves. *shudder* I reckon the picture was taken somewhere in the vicinity of here, probably between the Yomase and Shin-Anotakehara stations, seeing how there's a dale with a river between them.
kilala.nl tags: trains, japan,
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2010-01-18 20:41:00
This morning, on my way to the Amstel station I was passed by a Blue Angel and a Dog's head. That made my morning <3
Blue angel is the nickname for the diesel-electrics DE1/DE2 (Wiki).
Dog's head is the nickname for the first line of "bumped nose" electric trains, also known as Mat'54 (Wiki).
The photograph above was taken at the beginning of December, way down south in Venlo. The Angel's on the right, the Dog's on the left.
EDIT:
Aha! One of my fellow Tweakers spotted the pair at Utrecht central station a little while after they had passed me in Amsterdam. He took some photos.
kilala.nl tags: trains,
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2009-01-10 15:29:00
A lot of folks between the ages of 25 and 35 will know about Thundercats: an animation series from the eighties that became a short-lived hit. While the series hasn't stood up to the tooth of time, there are still staunch fans out there. Fans who do wonderful stuff like this ^_^
That must've taken a lot of work to make!
kilala.nl tags: childhood, cartoons,
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2009-01-08 20:33:00
I'm very late to the party, what with this show airing in 2002, but now that it's appeared on dutch TV I'm nuts about it! I'd heard the name Invader Zim (Wikipedia) tossed around the Ars Technica fora before, but never paid it much mind. Kind of like how it went with MST3k.
A few weeks ago though, Nick Toons started running Invader Zim in the Netherlands. It's dubbed for the younger audience, but I'm amazed by the quality of the voice acting. It's really quite well done.
Anywho... Marli heartily dislikes IZ, but I absolutely love it because of the show's randomness and (at times) sheer insanity. Some of the things that go on, it really takes a sick mind to think of. My favourite in this case being the Dark harvest episode, where Zim harvests organs from humans to disguise his alien identity.
Gir, as a shining beacon of insanity, is my favourite of the cast ^_^
kilala.nl tags: cartoons,
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2008-05-29 06:30:00
* On the 24th, we'd been married for four years.
* On the 28th, we'd been together for eight years.
* On the 28th, Marli officially got her one-year contract at the NS.
o Hooray! /o/
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2008-05-19 07:47:00
There are so many reasons for me to be proud of Marli, but these are the chief ones among them.
She -really- loves her new job at the national railways. She shines whenever she talks about the job and it's really up her alley. She enjoys working with people, helping people out and she's also rather proud to be a part of NS.
Between her job and additional exercise that she's getting, she's already lost a whopping 26 pounds! Now, she's still a way off from her ideal weight, but she's already managed to knock down at least a third of the way! Fscking awesome!
Way to go baby! I'm very proud of you! :)
kilala.nl tags: family, health, body, ns,
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2008-04-29 21:56:00
My dear wife, the service trainee at dutch railways, just regaled me with a few stories of her evening at work. Her shift started around two and lasted till ten and apparently the station's a certifiable nuthouse tonight ^_^;
Apparently there's a waiting period of about 80 minutes for the international tickets desk, even at ten o'clock at night. Something about people going on holidays and all kinds of foreigners coming to Amsterdam for tomorrow's Queen's Day celebrations. Apparently a lot of travellers cannot grasp the notion that the NS stop handing out queue numbers around ten, when the desk closes at 2300. Which part of "an 80 minute waiting period" do they not understand?
Anywho... Marli's not looking forward to tomorrow's shift. It's Queen's Day, in Amsterdam and her shift's from 1630 till 0030. Oh dear. Her crew are going to take the brunt of all the drunks and nuts returning to home after a long day of partying and drinking. No wonder she'll be travelling undercover, with her uniform in her backpack. O_o
EDIT:
By the by... In no way do I mean to say that Marli doesn't like her job! On the contrary, she's loving every single day! And she's pretty damn good at her work too, from what I gather. It's just that this week is home to one or two shifts from Hell ^_^;
kilala.nl tags: work, ns, weird,
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2008-04-04 14:29:00
In a few days, Marli will get started on her nightly shifts for the NS. This means that she'll get off work around 0100 and that she'll take the train back home by then. She'd arrive around 01:45 by our estimates.
Since we don't want her riding her bike at that hour for multiple reasons and since taxis cost a bundle, it looks like I'll be playing Midnight Taxi (tm) a few days a month.
I can already imagine myself driving around town in my robes! Now where did I put my Creedence tape?
kilala.nl tags: family, work, car, ns,
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2008-04-03 07:06:00
Last Monday Marli started her traineeship with the dutch railways, NS. She's been travelling to Amsterdam every day for her classes and so far she seems to really be liking it :) She's working hard and I'm really proud of her!
Everything about the preparation NS is putting into the traineeship tells me that they're very serious about all of this. The selection/screening day, the course materials, the uniforms and all the other equipment: this are serious business!
In the picture are:
* The trainee's velt cap. There are several models, ranging from this one, to the classical station master's cap and a horrible baseball cap XP
* Marli's first training manual. I have no idea how many parts there are in total, but I'm guessing it's three, so that leaves two thick binders more.
* The Rail Pocket, which is a custom modded Compaq iPaq. It's been hacked with an additional battery pack and an RFID reader (for the modern OV Chipkaart). It also runs custom software, which is rather impressively user friendly.
* A Nokia cellphone, which acts as a GPRS modem for the iPaq. The Rail Pocket regularly calls home for updates on traffic jams, emergencies and e-mails.
Nice stuff!
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2008-02-14 07:01:00
Aw yeah! I knew she could do it!
Back in October Marlijne applied for a job as railway inspector with the dutch national railways. Back then she was turned down for the job at the final stage. However, neither Marli nor her mother (who's worked at the NS for decades) could let things rest, so they set things to work at various departments across the Netherlands.
Lo and behold! Marli's resume filtered down to Amsterdam, who invited her down for a recruitment day. They liked her resume a lot and thought she's make a nice addition to the group of people who applied to adverts and such. The job everyone was after: service trainee, which boils down to the front-line jobs at railway stations.
Well... After a long day of being scrutinized, tested, shrunk (that's what shrinks do, right?) and turned inside out she got the job! The local management was very enthused about Marlijne and her "disarming" charm as one called it. They did worry slightly about her overweight (more for her sake, than for the NS's), but everyone agreed that that's something we could work on.
She'll start on April first and by then she'll already have her uniform etc. The uniform is being tailored to her measurements, as they do for all of the folks who can't wear confection sized uniforms.
I'm so proud! I knew she could do it :)
kilala.nl tags: family, work, ns,
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2007-02-04 13:21:00
Last Thursday PVP the animated series kicked off their first, subscription based season. Since they allow you to end your sub each month I thought I'd spring the $1.95 for the first ep. My final conclusion: no master piece, but not bad either. I'd say it's worth the two bucks, but only just.
The episode is rather short at six minutes, the animation is rather basic, the timing is a bit off and the writing isn't at the same level of the webcomic. Still, it's rather cool that Scott got this off the ground and I have nothing but praise for him about that.
I'm curious how the second ep will turn out and I may buy it at some point.
kilala.nl tags: comics, cartoons, fun,
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2006-11-29 14:06:00
Well now, this is interesting news: apparently the web comic PVP (Player versus Player) is being made into an OVA animation series released straight to DVD.
I've been following PVP for a few years now and, though it isn't the best comic out there, I'm still interested in their animated shorts. And at twenty bucks for twelve four-to-six minute episodes it isn't that bad a deal either.
The series' website includes a teaser trailer, so go and check it out.
kilala.nl tags: comics, cartoons,
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2006-10-19 19:17:00
I love cartoons... I really do. But there's no end to my appreciation for the genius that is Foster's home for imaginary friends (Wikipedia entry).
The show's got everything I need! Insane characters, characters you'd have to be insane to think of, and insanity in general :3 But putting aside the story, I'm also well impressed by the art of the TV series: the style's right up my alley and everything's actually made 100% on the computer using stuff like Flash and After Effects. Shiny.
I guess it's kinda hard to convey what I like about the show. If you're in the least curious, try to catch the show on Cartoon Network.
EDIT: I just found the production blog for FHIF. Jawsome!
kilala.nl tags: cartoons, fun,
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2006-07-22 12:17:00
Yeah, I'm a big kid at heart :D I love my cartoons...
I already mentioned my love for "Two stupid dogs" which was awesome when I was in high school and remains awesome to this day. "Fairly odd parents" has some great humor in it... Oddly enough it's -better- when dubbed in dutch! o_O Very odd. And finally there's Danger Mouse, a show from the eighties with some very clever jokes. The jokes are right up my aisle:
DM and Penfold are in a space ship on their way to the moon.
DM: Have you ever seen a weightless person before Penfold?
PF: Sure I have!
DM: How could you have?! You've never been in space before.
PF: But they're the women who bring you your food in the Chinese restaurant!
DM: ...
EDIT:
Hehehe... Apparently Wikipedia also has a sister-site which gathers quotes. Here's the page for "Two stupid dogs". I love this bit:
LD: Hey, hey, hey, hey! Why did you wake me up?
BD: So we can wake up.
LD: Well, if you didn't wake me up, I might've had a nightmare and it would've woke me up. Then, I could've woke you up, and we'd both...be...awake. But since you did wake me up, I can't wake up from this nightmare so I can't wake you up! So we're both still asleep.
BD: What?
kilala.nl tags: cartoons, fun, childhood,
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All content, with exception of "borrowed" blogpost images, or unless otherwise indicated, is copyright of Thomas Sluyter. The character Kilala the cat-demon is copyright of Rumiko Takahashi and used here without permission.