bubosquared: (work)
( Aug. 2nd, 2006 05:06 pm)

OH MY GOD DIE DIE DIE KILL IT KILL IT WITH FIRE! *twitches, froths at the mouth*

Uh, yeah, so work was of the bad today. It's just no a good sign when you're muttering the Litany Against Rage* under your breath before it's even gone ten. Aside from the usual fuckwittery from the field sales team, there were several times when I got through to voice mails and people all seemed to have recorded their message in a state of Extreme Boredom, like, what the hell people, it's called inflection, look into it, and then there were the people I called to try and get them to take a survey who seemed to take it as a personal insult, all "You must be joking," or laughing all "What was that all about?" to someone in the background before properly hanging up, which, it's a survey fool, and if you've never heard of that, it's not my fault you live under a rock, and my co-workers kept being EXTREMELY LOUD, as if I don't have enough issues with phone calls and background noise as it is, and AAAUUUUUUGH!

*deep breath*

The good news is, they handed out incentives today, and I got one, which is nice, especially as it came with £15 of vouchers for Debenham's, which I believe has a rather nice yarn department, which is very handy as we're coming up on the end of summer and I'll start knitting again soon, yaye! Oh, and then I got a call from someone with [livejournal.com profile] hokage's real name. Heeeee! Also got the second caller from my home town in three days, bringing the total after two years to ... two. Huh.

Also also, after some chasing up from me, I got my (emergency) overdraft, which means that from midnight tonight, I will no longer be broke. Thank fuck. Now I'll be able to actually buy chocolate and tobacco in Belgium. (Which reminds me, I should check if there's a limit on how much I can take back with me.)

In completely unrelated news, does anyone know what's happening/happened to [livejournal.com profile] who_daily?

* "I must not rage, rage is the mind-killer. Rage is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my rage. I will permit it to pass over me and through me, and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the rage has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

bubosquared: (political)
( May. 16th, 2006 01:53 pm)

Remember that shooting I mentioned? Now the public TV channel's received a letter, accompanied by a bullet, congratulating the shooter and wishing for Rik Van Nieuwenhuyse* to be the next victim. People, WTF is going on over there? o_O

* Businessman who was in the news a lot last year for refusing to give in to threatening letters (also accompanied by bullets) demanding he fire an employee for wearing hijab.

bubosquared: (space above and beyond)
( May. 12th, 2006 10:40 am)

No S:AaB recap today, as I got distracted by the dishes while cold Case was on in the background, and then I returned to the living room to see Bones was on, and it was about a historical dig, and pirates, so of course I had to watch David Boroneaz get his glee on (awww, he's really not that bad when he's not playing Broody McMoperson), and um. "... Is that Rod Rowland?" Yep, my weird talent for switching on shows I never watch just for the eps starring certain obscure actors I like has struck again! This happens to me all the time with Adam Baldwin as well. Either I have some sort of weird homing device for these guys, or they're stalking me through the TV.

So this weekend in Bruges, a bunch of skinheads beat up a black guy, who is currently still in a coma. Yesterday afternoon, an eighteen-year old shot a Turskish woman, a black woman, and the two-year old (white) child she was babysitting. The Turkish woman is heavily wounded, the other two victims didn't survive. I just ... I'm almost not surprised about this, after watching the number of extreme right voters rise constantly since ... pretty much since I became politically aware, really, which would have been the early nineties, probably even before, but the first real Black Sunday was 1992, I believe. Something had to give in the end, and I can only hope that this is it, that it's not just a buildup to something bigger.

Oh, and then my mum got taken to the ER on Wednesyday with what looked like it could be a heart attack, then might have been lung cancer, but thankfully turned out to be "just" atypical pneumonia. I'm ... kind of glad I didn't hear of it until last night, actually, when there was an actual diagnosis, because I would have freaked the fuck out. Yeah.

bubosquared: (coffee)
( Mar. 10th, 2006 11:52 am)

In which our herione's life is turned into a text adventure. )

In other news, what is with all the people calling up to get documents/images/info from us the day before (or even of, and in one case after) a deadline? Dude, lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. Now stop calling me and wait for someone to call you back. And switch to decaf, jeez.

[ETA] I should be allowed to just hang the fuck up on anyone who mocks my accent. (Not, oddly enough, a UK call, but a Dutch person finding this whole "Aww, look at the Belgian, she thinks she can talk, like real people!" thing unbelievably hilarious, apparently. Fucker. Die in a gorram fire.[/ETA]

bubosquared: (belgian in scotland)
( Dec. 13th, 2005 01:24 pm)

Hello, co-workers, if you're going to sing, could you at least sing something I know? Preferably something Christmassy? Better yet, shut up!

(One week until my birthday. I'm not ready to officially be in my mid-twenties, damnmit!)

Also less than a week until the [livejournal.com profile] mistletoemagic deadline. And less than two weeks till Christmas. And even less than that till I go to Belgium. Cue panic in three ... two ... one ...

bubosquared: (coffee)
( Dec. 6th, 2005 02:15 pm)

Happy Saint Nicolas Day, everyone! *tosses chocolate and marzipan at friendslist*

Dear co-worker: Shut up. Argh. I swear, I normally like this girl, but today she's just setting my teeth on edge like you'd not believe. I'm all for some fun in the workplace, but my voice breaking while I'm on the phone with someone should not be cause for five minutes of uninterrupted giggline. Also, pipe down already, I'm trying to hear what people are saying, and it's hard enough already what with being deaf in one ear today. (Stupid ear infection.)

Clearly, I'm grumpy!Melle today. Don't mind me.

That Letter To Santa meme ... )

bubosquared: (coffee)
( Nov. 23rd, 2005 11:44 am)

Oh, goddammit, a co-worker just strolled by whistling When I Need You and now it's in. my. head. and ARGH!

Okay, dorkage time. We've recently been getting daily reports on our call stats, totals of how many calls we've made the previous day, etc. I've pretty much consistently been in the top spot, and while I know this makes me incredibly lame, I get a huge kick out of that. (Yes, I'm competetive. Hush, you.) Yesterday was exceptional even for me, with 106 activities, which my supervisor congratulated me on, and the department head just e-mailed me to tell me what a great job I'm doing. *grin* And yes, maybe I take too much pride in a call centre job, but you know, I like this line of work, for some reason, and I like actually being productive. Yes, those six or so months of having very little to do but sit on my arse and surf all day were kinda fun, but boring, and I prefer knowing that I'm actually earning my paycheck.

(First Dutch-speaking person who makes a quip about living up to my name, dies, BTW. *glare*)

I hooold out my haaands and I touuuuch looove ...

Oh, boo, I won't be getting my Denise needles for another week at least! I e-mailed the woman running the shop I got them from, and her shipment of them is in customs and won't be with her until end of this week at the earliest. Bah! *sulks

Oh hey, Belgian slashers, do we want to arrange a get-together again or something when I'm over there?

And all that I sooooo wanna giiive youuu ...

I have a persistent headache and it's getting worse despite the painkillers. Grar. Need more coffee. And a cigarette. And possibly some sugar.

IT'S ONLYYYY A HEARTBEAT AWAAAAYYYYYY!

bubosquared: (work)
( Jul. 4th, 2005 02:39 pm)

This morning in the newspaper: annoying-ex-classmate-turned-even-annoyinger-politician talking about how the Liberals should work closely/closer with the extreme right VB. HATE!

I'm catching up on my friendslist and stuff, but I had a migraine last night, so don't expect a proper entry till tomorrow. Until then, have a Live 8 screencap of LUV. :D

bubosquared: (political)
( Jun. 8th, 2005 11:59 am)

[livejournal.com profile] krazycat tagged me, so here, have a meme. )

Tag six other people to take this meme.

Hm, let's see, who hasn't taken this yet ... [livejournal.com profile] babyofthegroup, [livejournal.com profile] carelessmemory, [livejournal.com profile] deepsix, [livejournal.com profile] elance, [livejournal.com profile] jamaisneutral, and [livejournal.com profile] ruby_fruit.

Another meme, cut for image. )

The current User Friendly storyline (starting here) is amusing me greatly because it rings so true. (I had to deal with pretty much exactly that for three years, remember, and yes, people do indeed act like that.)

In less amusing news, and the reason for the use of my politics icon*, Didier Reynders can bite me. As I ranted at poor [livejournal.com profile] jamaisneutral:

WTF? "Evaluate" gay marriages? Why? I just. I can't even fucking articulate how pissed off I am. The bloody CD&V is in favour, for fuck's sake, but Mr Reynders has to go and be a fucknuggety twat and ARGH!

The CD&V is the Christian centre-rightish party, for the non-Belgians amongst you. Reynders is supposed to be a liberal. And his nonsense about public opinion and queer couples adopting is bad enough, but I can't even read his "We should evaluate same-sex marriage" statement without seeing red, spluttering incoherently, and failing to make any sort of sense. Maybe once I've calmed down I'll be able to formulate a proper rant, but for now, you'll just have to imagine my primal scream.

Fucking hell.

* Which randomly reminds me, with 100 icon slots, I probably need Even More New Icons, and new and improved versions of the older ones. Something to ponder. Need to burn the images I have on my home computer to disk for use at work, I think.

bubosquared: (belgian in scotland)
( Jun. 5th, 2005 12:03 am)

OMG EVERYONE IN THE UK TURN TO CHANNEL 4 RIGHT NOW TO SEE OUR NATIONAL SHAME OMG OMG AAAAAAARGH!

bubosquared: (political)
( Jun. 1st, 2005 11:35 am)

Normally only bug [livejournal.com profile] ruby_fruit with these thought e-mail, but I think i have at least one Cable/Deadpool fan on my friendslist, and thought you might appreciate the cute. Awwwww. Also: heee! Oh, Bobby. *pats his head*

*dance of joy* *thumbs nose at the Bishops*

I love the internet. I can read my usual Belgian newspaper online, and even get the properly-formatted articles in PDF format if I want. Yay proper (Belgian) news!

bubosquared: (blather)
( Mar. 4th, 2005 02:38 pm)

Interesting. About Belgium, they say:

When dining with business associates in Belgium, relax and enjoy yourself. Meals are an important social and cultural event. Most Belgians are thrifty and do not like waste; finishing one's food is expected.

Can't vouch for any of the other countries, but that one's definitely true. Not too sure if we're thrifty overall, but finishing one's food is definitely a must.

About Scotland:

When in Scotland, remember to refer to the people as "Scots"or "Scotsmen." The word "Scotch" refers only to a drink. Never call a kilt a skirt, and avoid making jokes about this formal Scottish attire, which is often worn by both men and women. The Scots tend to be reserved people; handshakes are generally light, and hugging is not common, even among close friends.

Any of the Scots want to confirm or deny this?

bubosquared: (belgian in scotland)
( Feb. 21st, 2005 09:25 am)

Man, how did I miss the whole Condoleezza Rice kerfluffle? Yo, Belgians on my friwendslist? I do kinda rely on you to keep me posted on important things, you know.

In short, two weeks ago, Secretary Rice came to Belgium to scope out security and stuff for Bush's visit this weekend. There was an incident when she landed at Brussels airport, with some journalists who were kept way back from the plane to the point where they coudn't even get a picture with a huge telelens, a Belgian security officer, and a Secret Service (?) guy. According to my mother, it went something like this:

Journalists: "Dude, we can't even see anything from here. Can't we go in a bit closer?"
Belgian Security Bloke: "As far as I'm concerned." *lets the journalists move a bit closer so they can take a photo already*
Secret Service Bloke: "Hey, yo, you can't do that, this is our plane!"
Belgian Security Bloke: "... And this is my country, and these are my journalists."

Which probably is a wildly inaccurate version of what happened, but even so, it gives me warm fuzzy feelings. (Also, props to my mum for the phrasing, which is pretty much entirely hers and also hilarious and witty. Yay mum!)

And then today I read that there was at least one protest against Bush using sarcasm as a tool. Seriously, a whole protest with people carrying sarcastic signs like "Kill Kill Kill the Terror," "Fuck the Third World," and "War is good for the economy." I'm much amused. Mmm. My country tastes like sarcasm. :D

bubosquared: (contemplative)
( Aug. 29th, 2004 11:15 pm)

I really hope EasyJet succeed in negotiating to do direct flights from Edinburgh to Brussels, because while I don't mind the ninety-minute flight or the three hours on the train, the waiting in between (four hours total!) is going to kill me dead. Feck. But I arrived at my parents safe and sound, and didn't miss any connections or forget anything on the plane or train, so that's good.

Some things I learned at the family to-do on Saturday:

  • My dad is a dork.
  • My dad has been a dork since childhood.
  • My dad was a dork who was forever mugging when confronted with a camera. (Proof..)
  • While I have a similar body build to most of the women on my dad's side of the family, I don't have any physical resemblence to any of my family members on that side.
  • Neither do my brothers.
  • My cousins, however? Do. A lot.
  • My brothers and I are now the only ones of our generation who've never brought an SO to a family gathering.
  • We will continue to be the exceptions for a long time, as none of us would really considerbringing a girlfriend to these family gatherings, for various reasons.
  • A number of details about my brothers' sex life, past and present, that I really could've done without.
  • Small children frighten me, especially when there's a whole gaggle of them, even when they're related to me.

And that's all I have to say about that, really, except some general thoughts on family and family history and how I wish my grandfather hadn't died before writing more than a page of his memoires, and the urge to start writing some sort of actual autobiography type thing.

When we returned home, I went out for a drink with my brothers, which turned out to be a rather enlightening experience. We talked about bullying, and for a moment it was me and my oldest brother against the youngest, in a way. We were talking about the effects bullying has on you later in life, and my brother mentioned the frequent, paranoid conviction that you're unwanted and people you're hanging with would prefer you to leave, that you're being a fiifth wheel, and I mentioned the low self-esteem thing, and how I'm often still surprised when I look in the mirror and see a good-looking young woman, and while we're all "Oh, yes, totally," my youngest brother's looking at us in total uncomprehension. Much as I adore my youngest brother, I'm sometimes almost foribly reminded that the other one and I have much more in common in terms of life experiences, and not just because we're closer in age and have thus both lived through the Eighties and remember things like Fraggle Rock

I also realised in that moment that we're grown-ups now. Well, two grownups and a growing-up, but it's strange to realise that we can do this now, we can go out and talk about serious issues (and sit in the back seat of the car with my parents in the front and talk in some detail about sex, but see above about TMI, heh) like this. I'm having a hard time putting the feeling into words, but those of you with younger siblings who're in their late teens or older will probably know what I mean.

And then on Sunday I did the whole trains, planes and automobiles buses thing in reverse order, and that was a bit of a mindfuck, too, going home after visiting my parents and realising that "going home" in this case was more than just a one-hour train ride, that "home" is in another country now, where people speak a different language and use a different currency, and it was another one of those smallish things that really drove home to me that I'm here to stay.

And in Other News That Only Belgians (and the lone Dutch person on my friendslist) Will Understand: I sat across the aisle from Kristien hemmerechts on the train! Cooool!

bubosquared: (blather)
( Aug. 20th, 2004 03:32 pm)

Mommy, the Dutchmen are SCARING MEEEEEEE! *whimpers, waves wee Belgian flag in distress*

No [livejournal.com profile] megolas for me today, she has to stay in with her foot up. :(

And my e-mail internet should be working by 27 August. Which is of course the day I leave to visit Belgium. *facepalm* Well, it'll probably be earlier, and at least it'll give me time to find a router/modem/whatever it is I need and set up things.

And watch DVDs, yay!

Edit: E-mail and internet are not the same thing, self.

bubosquared: (contemplative)
( May. 31st, 2004 03:07 am)

Realisation: I'm going to miss this city a lot. As silly cliché as it sounds, this is where I lived on my own for the first time, and even though I know I'll be right at home ion Edinburgh, or really in any city, anywhere that's not my "home town" because Jesus fuck, I will live on the streets before I actually move back there, no way no how, not ever and god, can you tell Strange Love's vaguely biographic, and what whas my point again?

Oh, right. It's 3am and I'm going out for a walk. I'm not supposed to have a point at this, um, point.

bubosquared: (Default)
( Apr. 10th, 2004 02:39 am)

Everyone should move to Belgium! We have good chocolate, great beer, and supersonic minis!

:D

bubosquared: (contemplative)
( Mar. 27th, 2004 02:39 pm)

I'm thinking of organising some sort of MelleCon in Belgium in the summer of 2005, which will mark my tenth fandom aniversary. I'd love to have my friends all come over to see me for a change, instead of my always flying out to meet others. ;)

I'm mostly still just kicking the idea around for now, but it occured to me I should start organising well in advance if I'm actually going to try and pull this off. Hence, this poll.

[Poll #269411]

ETA: The room price would be for a double room, not per person. :)

I'd probably try to find a hotel in Antwerp, so we can go sightseeing and clubbing, and perhaps go to the zoo or whatnot. And all of this is starting to sound really pretentious, but it's really just me trying to get all my friends to come celebrate my fannish anniversary with me, I swear. :)

bubosquared: (blather)
( Feb. 27th, 2004 09:46 am)

HOLY FUCK THAT IS A SHITLOAD OF SNOW!

Fifteen fucking centimeters! Six inches! A SHITLOAD!

Melle: *steps outside, not suspecting a thing*
Melle's feet: *disappear in snow up to ankles*
Sam: *plays California Dreaming*
Melle: ... Very funny.
Sam: Antropomorphising me again, are we?
Melle: Oh, cram it.

ETA: HP personality quiz. Did not see this one coming. )

bubosquared: (lord of the rings)
( Jan. 31st, 2004 06:42 am)

Icon of the day.

I have nothing of worth to note, really. [livejournal.com profile] sileas and [livejournal.com profile] rane_ab are coming over later today to watch movies, so I should clean up and make cake. ("Let them eat cake!")

Oh! I did have something of worth to note: [livejournal.com profile] a_hogwarts_tale! (*pokes [livejournal.com profile] ladyjaida and [livejournal.com profile] themagdalene*)

.

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