Social media pros & cons

Social media has it's good and bad sides. I'm going to list a couple on each side from my own personal experiences. Let's start with the good ones first!

Pros of social media

• Of course the biggest plus side of social media and all that comes with it, is the ease of keeping in touch with others. If you come across something on your way to work that reminds you of a friend you haven't spoken to in a while, then you can easily snap a picture of it with your phone and send that friends the picture with a message 'made me think of you!'. People nowadays don't have an excuse to not keep in touch with their friends, wherever in the world they may be (as long as they have internet). 

• Next to this a big reason for everyone to keep facebook is because the events you get invited to. If you have friends like I do, that don't have facebook, you tend to accidentally forget to invite them because it's so easy to make an event and invite your friends through facebook. Even though an email is also quickly sent, you don't have the reminder or the RSVP in there, and any changes you make in the event, people will see automatically. It's easy, and we are living in a very lazy world. 

• We all have those people where we tend to wonder what they're up to in their lives. Well social media allows you to have an idea about their lives, depending on how much they share online of course. Either way usually the place they're living is stated, so you know you can contact the person when you're in the neighbourhood. 

• In this economy it is tough to find a job, so because of linkedin you have a network and people who you can contact or who could help you in your search of a job. Maybe they know someone who is looking for someone with your qualities! We all need contacts in the business world and this is an easy way to have that! Someone asked me to add him on linkedin so he could contact me when he heard of a good PhD position that became available, so who knows what effect he could have on my future career! 

Cons of social media

• So a big negative point in my life of social media is the constant contact you have. I love it when I shut down my phone so no one can contact me and I have some peace and quiet. However, as soon as I keep this up for too long, I get emails (which I do check on my laptop) asking if I'm okay or if I lost my phone or whatnot. Also I am the person who's scared of missing an important call. I tend to miss the old days where cell phones did not exist and internet was a new thing and very slow. I loved snail mail (okay last time I used that I was probably 10) and the excitement of getting a handwritten letter in your mailbox. At that time along with many stickers, which I used to collect. Somehow it was more peaceful and less forced. It feels to me like a lot of contact nowadays is forced. Such as the 'read by' feature facebook has. I tend not to read a message when I know I can't answer it immediately because I'm worried the person will think I'm ignoring him or her. Ridiculous, I know! But these things are going on in my head. It is also the reason why I changed my whatsapp settings to people not being able to see when I was last online. I don't mind not being able to see when someone else was last online, so I'm all good with that, and it did relax me a bit more. Also because of the constant contact, we don't write accurately anymore. Messages have become short and distant I feel. I love receiving long emails from a friend about their vacation or something that has happened. But I have to admit, I don't tend to write long emails either. It's so easy just to send a short message. I'm such a hypocrite at times, I know :p Blame the laziness ;)

• A big negative point of the social media is the ease for someone to stalk you. Like the song from Taryn Southern - crush (see the link below) which is awesomely humorous, it's also very accurate about what's going on nowadays. Especially for the younger ones amongst us that have no clue about privacy statements and who could see what you post and share online - because once online, always online. Even though I am very careful about what I share, I have had my scares from friends who've sent me links where there was a picture of me and I had no idea it was taken whatsoever. Not to worry, it was never any embarrassing or nudity pictures, but it is shocking when you see yourself when you had no idea about the picture or post whatsoever. Also this was printed in a newspaper on the cover... Through some friends I also found out that there are clips of me on youtube from dance competitions. Sure it was a competition, but it wasn't like I was somewhere in the background, the camera actually focused on me. But really I don't mind these clips, my point is how easy there's something of yours online for everyone to see without you being able to control it! And we have all googled crushes and facebook 'stalked' them. I try not to, I never used the star feature either, but you can't help but wonder what they're up to and just check their page out. We're curious beings and there is no harm in that, as long as you don't take it overboard and start stalking the person. Because with the combination of the various platforms and the activity of someone online, it is possible to know where they are at what time and figure out their daily program. Especially for those in highschool, it's so easy to know what classmates are up to. And these people are usually pretty careless with what they post and show online, not realizing how it can come back to you later in life in a very negative way. I wonder how the president in 20 years will cope with it, because there will be tons of that person online. It could be scary really. 

 

• A very big negative aspect could be online bullying. I am very thankful that that was not a big part during my time in highschool where I was bullied, we only had email, icq, msn and well I did not have the bullies in my lists anyway. Yes some of them did call me, but then you hang up the phone after you told them you know who's calling (I'm very good at recognizing voices over the phone, which freaked them out and made my day!). Nowadays with people taking pictures of you, videotaping you and then posting it online for everyone to see. I cannot imagine how that could be! People creating fake profiles of you just to bash on you... That's just horrible. The person being bullied is never away from the bullies. At least I had my rest when I was home and just dreaded the next day. The kids being bullied now dread what is put online, they get messages, it's a constant thing. I really don't know how they cope really. 

These are my main points on social media. Can't live with it, can't live without it! Just think twice about what you share on the internet and keep some stuff for when you actually see your friends so you have something to talk about. Keep some mystery alive.

<3

Smothered

It has been a while, at least a couple of years, since I've had this bad of a headache. I think it has to do with the fact that I had about 2 straight hours of thinking, whilst paying attention to the students making their exam so they couldn't cheat. This last one was easy since I know quite a lot of the body language signs someone makes when they're preparing to cheat and whenever that happened I walked over to them and stood there overlooking the others as well. With this method, if they actually went ahead and cheated, I would've caught them red-handed. Problem is I had too much time to think about my life, the people in it, where I'm headed, why I want what I want, who my true friends are and so on. 

I am rethinking everything and feeling more and more the need to just move out of this country. Yes country, not just the city. I feel like leaving everything and everyone behind and start a new adventure somewhere else, somewhere I haven't been, somewhere where I don't know anyone yet. I am aware that I have this need because I feel smothered by everyone around me. I feel like everyone feels the need to tell me how to live my life. And I guess today felt as if the last straw was taken. I even missed my stop twice on my way home and I lost my public transport card, all because of the headache and the continuous thoughts going through my head.

 

All I have to say is that change is definitely on it's way. 

I can't hardly wait!

<3

Halloween Horror Show makeup look

Hiya!

So I was looking on youtube for inspiration 2 weeks before this event. I love playing around with makeup and trying out different looks. That's why I'm always excited for events like these where I can go crazy-wild wild makeup :D Yey!!

I actually went with the first look I tried out the evening, because I was quite happy the way it turned out to be honest. I didn't expect it to work out that well so I was very happy :)

The image that inspired me for this particular look was this one:

Image from google

The only thing that made me doubt this look a little was that I had to sit with the thick layer of makeup on my face for at least 11 hours, and after a while my face starts to itch when I'm wearing that much. But I decided around 7pm to just start with the makeup, and if I didn't like it or wouldn't think it would last for the many hours of sitting and watching horror movies, I can always take it off and have enough time for something a bit more simple. 

I finished the look a bit before 9 and I was very happy with how it turned out, especially for a first go with this particular look. So I decided to leave it and just go with it.

I finished the makeup by also adding the bones and shading to the neck, like the original picture, and created a big bun with one of the larger donuts you can buy in a drugstore and pinned a white flower at the side, which you can sort of see in the picture below:

Yes we were goofing off during the first break :D This was around 2:30am and we were going strong!

After the Halloween Horror Show I finally got home around 11am. I have to say that I was surprised at how good the makeup still looked after 14 hours! It did fade a bit and get very shiny, which doesn't show in the picture, but trust me I was almost functioning as a mirror to others! If I want to wear this look more often I'll probably invest in one of those clear matting powders. 

It was a fun night and I can't wait until next time!!

<3

Halloween Horror Show at Pathe Tuschinski 26/10/13 00:00

The movie theatre where they hold the Halloween Horror Shows. (Taken from the Pathe website.)

Hiya!!

Every year there's a Halloween Horror Show where 4 of the newest (usually not yet released in the cinemas here) horror movies are shown along with various short films and special previews and lastly also prices to the best costumes. This was the 5th year it was organized and was my third time there. I have to admit that the movie line up was the best one for me this year!

This year they had a lot of horror artwork from Eric Peters hung in the foyer of Tuschinski. It looked very cool to have those painting of classic horror characters such as Dracula and the Joker to name a few. And after all the bags were checked for bottles or cans of drinks (these weren't allowed but at least you could transfer your drinks in cups they provided for you, food was okay) we finally got to go to our seats. Since we bought our tickets online and we got appointed seats from there, we didn't feel the need to arrive there before the doors opened, because there is always a HUGE line, which was even there when we got there 5 minutes after the start of the show. But having quite a few of these marathons we knew that the first movie would start somewhere from 00:30. So we weren't worried at all :)

Originally we would've started with Curse of Chucky, but Universal Studios called in the morning before and made the theatre cancel the viewing of the movie. The reason why is not publicly known, so they moved up the line-up and the movie we started with was Insidious Chapter 2. I was most anxious about this one because even though I am fascinated by horror movies, I scare very easily. I've seen Insidious at a previous Halloween Horror Show and it had a lot of good scares which all made me (reluctantly) jump in my seat. And Insidious Chapter 2 had even more and better scares. It was a bit predictable at times, but those jump scares! I have never been scared that much and that bad in any movie I've seen. My poor heart!

Then there was time for a break which usually lasts about 20 minutes, and then the first short movies started with the first of a short trilogy from Jason Stutter: CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE. 



It's about 2 or 3 minutes long but was made perfectly and very unexpected! Loved it! 

 

Hereafer one the next movie started which was the new version of Carrie. I was a bit apprehensive about the remake of this classic, because I tend not to like remakes that much. However, I have to say they've done a reasonable job making the movie a modern version where the highschool kids actually look much more like high school kids than the original movie and they all had smartphones. I have to say I liked the movie! I still prefer the classic mainly because I feel that the actress portraying Carrie was better suited for the role than the remake and somehow the atmosphere was better. 

Then it was break time whereafter the next short of the trilogy was shown: CAREFUL WITH THAT POWER TOOL, which, even though you know what to expect from the first one, was very well done and still very unexpected! Another 3 minutes of sitting on the edge of your seat.
Then another short was presented which was THE APPLICANT (Tim Dean). This one was not too much to my liking. Started off where you were wondering what was going on during that job interview to a twist that was kinda weird and far fetched... A little bit sci-fi horror if you will. It wasn't my style really. You can see the entire short on youtube: 

So around 5AM came the time for the third movie of the night which I was very excited about: The World's End. 



They announced that the movie was not of a particular genre which made it a huge discussion to show it in the Netherlands. It was one of the reasons I wanted to go to this marathon because I really wanted to see it, and I understand after seeing it how it's difficult to put that genre label on this one. It is more of a comedy/drama between middle aged men, but it does have a sci-fi/horror theme to it from the middle on. Not really scares but there are quite some wtf moments. I liked it! But I was also a big fan of the first 2 movies of this trilogy which were Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. It wasn't as good as the last 2, but definately worth to see! 

Now it was 7:30am and the last movie had to be shown as well as the shorts after the last break. But first there was a prize ceremony for the best costumes. I love seeing how people put so much effort in it, especially since you have to sit in that costume the entire night, which let's be honest, with a lot of makeup or schmink/latex etc on your face is not comfortable and if your outfit it elaborate you tend not to be able to sit comfortably either. So I applaud those brave enough to go for it! The winners were 2 zipper-faced girls, and the first price was a tie between a horror Sinterklaas & zwarte Piet and 2 witches (which had chins and noses stuck on.
Now it was time for the last short films which was the third of the trilogy: CAREFUL WITH THAT CROSSBOW. A very good short with perfectly fits the other 2! Then there was another short film which lasted about 10 minutes which was Fist of Jesus (Adrián Cardona & David Muñoz) which you can see entirely on youtube:



Without giving too much away, this is a splatter movie which reminded me a bit of the style from the movie Braindead. The story was very original and a lot of humor going with the gore, which is the usual go-to for splatter movies. Then there was a special preview of a upcoming Dutch movie called 'de poel' which I did not find that interesting to be honest. But then again I'm not a fan of Dutch movies anyway. The crowd also did not seem too excited because not many people applauded which was a bit uncomfortable because the director was in the room. We clapped to be nice :) Finally the last movie of the marathon started which was I Spit On Your Grave: 2.



I have never heard of this movie and because the movie was chosen at the last moment they only announced it at the start of the marathon. I fell asleep in the first part, because well I've been awake for all of the above and I was just exhausted. I woke up because the main character was screaming, which happens during horror movies of course, and then I followed most of the movie. It is very graphic and basically a sick movie really. The young woman was raped, cut, beat up, kidnapped etc, to escape the men that kidnapped her, only to get tricked back into the same house. I won't say much more, but I found it surprisingly an interesting film, even though it was that graphic. It did show the emotional traject from someone undergoing the abuse and how others can be too late to really help that person. But definitely not a film for the faint at heart! 

Now at 9:45 the night has ended and we went ahead to walk towards our bikes to have the dreaded bike ride home with all the horror makeup still on (even though it itched like crazy) and having all the people that were up and about staring at us, well especially me since I was wearing skeletal makeup. I'll post the look in another post.

<3