Picture to word ratio is good in this post.

Heavy Metal Buffet episode 21


Usually I avoid making new years resolutions for myself. I really don't want to begin a new year with added tasks in hand, like to remember to brush my teeth twice a day - which always ends up in dissapointment. Three days. I once went three days with no teeth brushing in January, after making a resolution to brush my teeth twice daily. Manky #056.

But anyway, it's not a resolution, more of a "This should have happened by now and it's really going to require one sitting, a good idea and a jpeg image."

That's right I'm finally going to personalise the design of this blog.

I can't believe this blog will be about a year and a half old and I'm still using these books as a background. Look at them, not one of them even has a title, protentious books. No offence Blogger but it's pretty shit.

Also in the vein of improving the blog. I have been spell and grammer checking these days. I really have (to an extent). Although I still miss blatant mistakes, like when I leave myself blindingly obvious notes in caplocks to insert a picture or link in. Then just skip right over it in the last read through. Here's a screen shot example of one of these incidents from last time I blogged:

So, now you're all excited bout the video again let me actually post it here:

So that was Oxjam summed up in video format. From montages to interviews to a pretty long segment when I stood between the members of Ten Tonne Dozer trying to get a good picture of what the band are like during a gig: awesome.

You'll have notice Jamie's stoic performance (he's lead guitar) and has been described as:
"the eye of the hurricane as the rest of the band thrash around around him like a wild storm."

Ten Tonne Dozer are also often described as:
"The unstoppable force meets the unmovable object"
- Dave Kok going round Jamie's for some tea and a session and aussie football. JOKES. Jamie goes round Dave's for that.

Also talking of the Heavy Metal Buffet. The ever lovely Ivan Hawick took us out on a trip to a top secret location (Shetland) and we made another Heavy Metal Buffet picture introducing my to the team. Brally cold day it was.

So continuing on that topic, tonight is the night we decorate the house, watch Elf and have a take away; and hopefully Jamie and I will finish Heavy Metal Buffet episode 22. Without having to get as drunk as we did during 21. So it's time to go and get that ready cause I've already missed Elf on channel 4, I'm hoping four has one of those pluse one channels and I can catch it in 18 minutes. Before that I've got to clean the house and wake Ashlea and decorate, I bet your glad you got to read all of that.


Well, I will probably blog again between now and 2013. I really should considering last year I wrote 13 posts in four months. This year I'm sitting pretty (shitly) at nine and currently wondering how many t's I should have used back there in those brackets.


For now have a Merry Christmas however you celebrate it, or not, whatever the case: MERRY CHRISTMAS.

http://tfwiki.net

And on a last note: Leave Bugarach alone. There's not enough room for you in that village or the spacecraft.

BBC story: Mayor of Bugarach fears large influx for 'end of the world'

Mareel, Skyfall and a bit of Heavy Metal

Hello

Before I start writing about the main reason I've started writing the post today I just want to share some news. Exciting news.

I've written on here before about the Heavy Metal Buffet, but incase I gave no context as to what it is, or you've never read it, skimmed over it, forgotten it, didn't give a damn, let me shove it right into your face for another helping of some more smorgasbord (thanks wiki).

The Heavy Metal Buffet was established by my brother Dirk and friend Jamie, back, well roughly 21 weeks ago. It is a celebration of all things metal with an emphasis on local (Shetland) bands and musicians as well as advertising local gigs.

On October 20th, this year, Shetland had it's first ever Oxjam Takeover coordinated by Ashlea Tulloch. The day consisted of four gigs around town with dozens of artists, one wristbadn could get you into all four and all money raised goes straight to Oxfam. Dirk, Jamie and myself (as a newly joined member) presented a 7 hour metal gig in Da Wheel Bar. It was as follows:

(INSERT YOUTUBE OXJAM AT DA WHEEL BAR HERE)

That's not even the exciting news.

As the Heavy Metal Buffet we had the honour and privelage to interview none other than the Anthrax bassist Mr Frank Bello. Thank you so much to Frank for giving us the time during your Worship Music tour of Britain to chat to us over Skype, and thank you to Andy for getting us into contact.

Blabbermouth link to the Heavy Metal Buffet

To be honest I was really nervous about interviewing Frank, and none of us wanted to ask any questions he gets thrown at him all the time. So we tried our best to come up with some interesting questions (again thanks to Andy for giving us the heads up about the birthday lap dance for Rob. If you're interested to learn more of this dance listen to our interview with Frank on the Buffet linked below, and why not listen to the buffet before and after)

http://soundcloud.com/heavymetalbuffet/heavy-metal-buffet-episode-20

Frank Bello and myself at Doonlod 2012

Thank you Frank and thank you Andy and also thank you Anthrax for Worship Music.
2011 was an amazing year for Metal, some awesome albums. Thank you 2011.

Enough of that.

Recently Claire, myself, Jamie and Peter started up a band: Beef Cleaver. We played at Oxjam and a gig up in the Mid Brae Inn (this time with Dwayne on drums)
We just recorded our first original song, it's on't Buffet or you can have a listen here:

Black Island - Beef Cleaver

So to the title of this blog.

Was going to write this blog post on Sunday night as soon as I'd come out of Skyfall because I was on a just seen an awesome Bond film high. Then almost a week went past and I realised how time escapes me. #willalwaysbejealousofbernard

I love the Bond films, watched them since I can't remember, but Roger Moore is my favourite.

http://www.thedailytouch.com/

I was a bit nervous about Skyfall, I suppose if there's anything you've invested your time, money and part of your soul (but not a horcrux) into you want it to be good.

It was awesome.

SPOILERS:

I suppose for me I feel the film had two main points to get across:
1) The world of espionage is not over, infact it is more important than ever.

2) Bond, this Bond, is growing from the character in the books into the suave Bond we know from earlier films. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that Daniel Craig took Bond's character to the darker addict Flemming wrote him as, I think it was an interesting take and took Bond closer to reality after that invisible car. What I like is that through Casino Royale, Quantam of Solace and now Skyfall Bond has been broken down emotionally and physically (several times) and lost the person closest to him (I suppose twice) and was forced to evolve into, what I believe is a Bond akin to Connery's and he will be fully emerged as this incarnation in the fourth Craig film (there better be a fourth).

Highlights for me included the nods to previous films; Q's quip about "exploding pens" (Goldeneye, Boris was vincible after all) and the return of the beloved Aston Martin with the features of that from Goldfinger.

Also Moneypenny. What a way to reintroduce her, I don't know about you but I figured it was her as soon as we met her in the new headquarters. However I don't think that matters at all, I just liked that Moneypenny has proven herself as a knowledable member of the team who has worked in the field.

Also, it wasn't just the film that made me enjoy my trip to see Bond so much, niether the advert beforehand featuring every Bond ever in a car chase, or the face that Ashlea, Jamie and myself all went to the cinema in our pyjamas with a massive blankie. It was just being in Mareel itself.

I love Mareel. It's welcoming and comfortable. It's like going to a friends house, a really clean house, but not in that way it makes you feel guilty about the state of your own home. I always look forward to going there, the cinema is so comfy and the cafe is amazing, I could stay there all day everyday, anyone could.

Just ask Rodrigo.

Kom binnen

'Kom binnen' that means 'welcome' in Dutch, or 'come inside' I forget which, maybe even both, I'd really like to learn the Dutch for 'come outside'

Photo courtesy of BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/come-outside

 

Why this amazingly bilingual introduction?

I'll tell you. I've been trying to learn Dutch. My Mam is Dutch, hence the 'Marjolein' name, and I've never been fluent in Dutch. Not remotely - stereotypical Brit. So I'm trying to learn some now, this late in life.. it's not going too badly, thanks to this beauty of a website:

http://www.memrise.com/home/

I've even learnt how to read "There is no fish" in Japanese.
Procrastination.

So far I've just been learning singular words, which is fine, especially with their helpful mnemonics to remember words, these are submitted by other users of the site. A community they call it. I used to ignore these tips till I found they really helped. One of my favourite examples being for the Dutch word for dissapointment 'teleurstellen' the tip being: If you tell your Stella (Artois Beer) a joke, you will be dissapointed by the bottle's reaction) since then I have never forgotten teleurstellen. Magic.

Also I greatly enjoy these mnemonics, as they are contributed by the users, pretty much annonymous beings of the site, it allows for hilarious results. The more hilarious the tip, the easier it is to then memorise the word, taking it up a notch, this also applies to innuendoes, the more double meaning the mnemonic has, the quicker I learn the translation. I've come to notice that almost all  all the tips written by the ever helpful 'edcooke'

 

 















I don't even know who Marquis de Zaad is, I don't know if I want to know, but I always remember now that seed in Dutch is 'het zaad'. Although I have no idea whether these are double entendres in Dutch as well. Drawer.


Asides from learning, I've also been filming, this week for Heavy Metal Buffet. Since I've been taken on as 'video director' I haven't produced anything... until now. Last Wednesday, Emma-Louise let us in her cupcake shop to film and eat cup cakes. Great fun was had by all.

As Emma-Louise described it: "Something a little bit different that happened in the coffee shop!"

Thank you Emma-Louise for your patience, kindness and cupcakes. If you haven't been yet then go! The cupcakes are so good, Orkney Fudge is perhaps my favourite. If you're on Facebook search 'Emma-Louise Cupcakes' and give their page a like, you'll get updates on what is literally cooking.

Here's Heavy Metal Buffet's first scripted film:

 Url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqV2mkOmFZ4





If you want some more Buffet goodness, (the podcast kind) click on the following link to listen to the latest episode, it incldes an unreleased version of Ten Tonne Dozer's 'Roo Shooter' check it oot:
http://soundcloud.com/heavymetalbuffet/heavy-metal-buffet-episode-14

 Also, as I've missed a couple of HMB episodes since I last blogged here, so have a gander at 13 as well. (Because I don't think I even feature in 14):

http://soundcloud.com/heavymetalbuffet/heavy-metal-buffet-episode-13


Right, I've got to love you and leave you lovers,

Got an Oxjam meeting, make sure you get your tickets for the 20th! We're playing with Beef Cleaver in the Wheel Bar, at Heavy Metal Buffet presents Oxjam at the Wheel.

And for my last link, if you want to hear our new band Beef Cleaver click the link, this is our cover of System Of A Down's ATWA.

http://soundcloud.com/ronalddrivesatractor/beef-cleaver-atwa

Cheerio. x



LATER NOTE:

Marquis de SADE - got you know.

An issue of privacy and perceptions.

There are a number of things I want to write to you about. Since last time I've been to the Edinburgh Fringe (with a quick stop off at the Art Festival) been to the Big Bannock, Orkney Show, Shetland Screen Play Festival and hard at work for Maddrim and the Heavy Metal Buffet along with another little side project.


But all of that can wait until another blog post... (Most of it can wait indefinitely)

..Because today I need to write to you about this recent scandal in the papers. Or paper. Or trashy French mag. Whatever we're boiling it down to. Our future Queen, Kate Windsor (née Middleton) has been photographed semi-nude, whilst on a private holiday, and it's going in some 'celeb mag rag'.

Do everyone a favour and don't look up those images, whether in print or online. Why? Two reasons. Firstly, it's simply an invasion of privacy. How rude. If I was sitting in my garden, got my paps papped by the pap for dirty cash I'd definitely get in contact with the police about invasion of privacy/stalking - that's if I hadn't chased them down and eaten the camera first.

And that's not because I'm naked. No being naked is fine. I'd be angry because once people see that picture of me, immediately their perceptions of me would change, which leads me nicely on to point two:

Second point, if a man walks around with just swim shorts on there is no outrage. Why, in this age, do we care? Why do people immediately judge a woman who has decided to strip off in her own time? Why can a woman not be topless in public when men are allowed? It's pathetic. Feminism people.

Magazines still tell women how to eat, dress, put on makeup and exercise for the 'perfect body'. From what I've read from many publications from Glamour to Cosmopolitan and many others, when it tells you about confidence, this word is used most often in the sexual advice pages. Confidence in oneself increases your attractiveness. To pleasure the man.

Women are still fighting for feminism, in Britain today the fight is against perception, this may seem immeasurable, almost implausible. I'm not an extremist, I'm simply a feminist. And it annoys me how many women out there start a sentence with:
"I'm not a feminist but.." and then suggest equal pay, bring up an issue with politics. THESE ARE ALL A RESULT OF FEMINISM.

I reckon now that I've grown up I see more sexism every day. What I had previously considered to be past attitudes and comments are now given to me by many (not all) men. I just never experienced this until I was of age and physical maturity to receive such comments. Also it's not just men. The number of women in society who still believe and enforce old ideals is just as disheartening.


To summarise on the Kate photographs:

Get over it. Don't even go there, the poor woman was trying to enjoy her holiday in privacy. And as much as I would like her to stand up to the media involved and say "Yeah, those are my tits. So what?" I understand what with society's hell bent obsessions with mammaries she can't. Total shame.

50 Shades isn't as rude as initially thought.. take out all the times he "cocked his head to one side" and there's generally 78% less cock.

That's right, I've been reading 50 Shades of Gray. There goes all my intelligence.

It's wild. If I had found that book in a shop and just bought it on a whim, I wouldn't admit in public, to a friend, or on the blog, that I was reading it. However, with the insane popularity this book has amassed it is perfectly acceptable to announce to your fellow co workers in the office that you are reading this filthy, filthy book. And do you know why it's so filthy? The absolutely horrendous writing. WHY SO MANY ELLIPSES? WHY?

If I read any of the following:
"holy cow"
"holy shit"
"holy moses"
"he cocked his head"
"pushed me over the edge"
"inner goddess"
any more, I will just take it, because I can't expect any better, and that's what Ana would do, she just can't stop herself taking it.

Alsooo is it just me or is this book embarrassingly anti-feminist? Just me? I don't know, have some back bone Ana and keep off of Grey's one for a second. She manages to withhold once (that I've read so far) and she goes home and cries about it. Woman up Miss Steele. And if you're going to cry about not getting any, take it, and take it in your stride.

Stride of pride.


And now I have to apologise, for being a hypocrite. I rarely spell check this blog, look over the grammar or even do a simple sense check. I used to say it was part of the blog's charm. I write a post in one sitting then post it, coherent thoughts and all that. However since reading 50 Shades. (I found a spelling mistake in it last night) I've realised how annoying it is when someone is sloppy with their writing, I'll try to do better.

I don't want to read the trilogy, I really don't, I can't wait to finish this first book and get back into Tolkien again, yeah LOTR!

Frodo and Bilbo. Love you Bagginses.

But, on another note, good on you woman for making a ridiculous fortune from this book. Donate at least a proportionate chunk of it to a literacy foundation. Again, though I shouldn't ridicule, I started this blog partly to keep me writing since graduating University, and without any Professor to mark it, or an English version of Word to spell check, it's turned into a overly colloquial flood of words inter-spliced with 'awesome' at least once a blog. But there you go.

Recently I have been: winning a fishing competition at the Skeld Regatta, recording more radio show and some Heavy Metal Buffet Podcast, filming for Maddrim, reading 50 Shades, editing for Maddrim, went to the Voe Show, swimming in the sea a few times and perfecting my Trujillo impersonation.

This photo is property of my sister. Her name is Floortje Robertson.

However this blog was a backwards one, as I'm ending it with my 'what I've been up to' oh no wait. Not entirely backwards. Here comes the goodbye:

Evol fo stol
Neilojram xxxx


P.S You listened to the new podcast yet? 88 minutes in. Yeah, yeah, that's me interviewing BLACK SABBATH. Reggahs ananab.

http://soundcloud.com/heavymetalbuffet/heavy-metal-buffet-episode-4

Last time I went to the Voe Show, we were dressed like this.

I was just doing a Robert Trujillo impersonation, then Mam walked in and offered me cough medicine.

Hiyi
How’re you?
That’s fantastic.
I’ve been pretty well too.

Recently I have been: to see Judas Priest on their last date of the Epitaph tour, to Download Music Festival, starting up a weekly radio show, made a film that is currently touring Britain, working as a camera assistant for a new drama, won a daft raft race and my cat died.

Today's blog has been written whilst listening to: http://soundcloud.com/heavymetalbuffet/heavy-metal-buffet-episode-2

Listen and read, we may just share the same experience.
Heavy Metal Buffet is made by my brother Dirk and friend Jamie.

On the subject of online radio, on Friday evenings, from 6pm till 9pm you can tune into Joe, then myself and finally Dirk and Jamie (but NOT related to Heavy Metal Buffet show) for some suitable, family friendly and tuneful radio.

http://www.shetland.org/puffincam/index.php?file=stream2

(Click the link at five to six on Friday)

We're waiting for you.

Right, Jamie and Dirk are way too distracting to listen to while writing so I've put on a bit of Master of Puppets by METALLICA. Holy shit they were awesome at Doonlod, we got up on the Vodaphone veiwing platform, which, although we were a bit away, offered us an amazing view of the entire stage, the snake pit and the crowd. Man it was impressive to see the crowd watching METLICA. The next day when Sabbath came on to finish the festival I swear the crowd was even bigger, the entire festival seemed to turn up to watch Sabbath, and it was awesome. They played songs from the first eight albums. I was wondering if they'd play any DIO but they stuck to all the early Ozzy, which, although there were some DIO songs I would have loved to hear live it was fitting. And it was amazing to see Iommi play, his hands created the sound of metal we love so much today and even in his illness he came on and gave the most awesome performance. I'll always hold the memories of seeing Sabbath, although deeply under the influence of freaking Anthrax's whisky at the time, as one of the highlights of my life. Yeah that's right I got Anthrax's whisky, met them and Megadeth and the lovely Kobra Paige backstage, best weekend ever.


Moving on.


Not sure if you've heard about the Hansel of Film, I'm going to explain it now without double checking it's actual description on t'site. It's a relay of homemade films from the length and breadth of Britain touring around the isles in honour of the olympics. At each location films are shown from that location, from the previous location and then there are out Shetland films in the mix. 'Hansel' is Shetland for gift. SO ENJOY.

Actually, the Culture Show is doing a whole piece on Hansel of Film on Wednesday, check this oot:

http://hansel2012.org/blog/hansel-film-be-featured-bbc%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98culture-show%E2%80%99

 Maddrim made a few of the films there, even though I wasn't involved in Maddrim when some of those earlier entries were made, yeah, you're still welcome. Dirk and I really wanted to make a film, we came up with an idea, wrote a rough script down and set to make it on a Sunday (I forget which) pretty close to the deadline when we had all the equipment. But it pissed it down on the day and it was imperitive that we film the film outside and we didn't wanna get rained on. The filming was pretty much cancelled, then, at 15.30 Dirk was all like:

"Let's make a film about kids who like Star Wars, yeah, they could like it so much it's become their whole world, they've even created almost their own Star Wars universe for themselves"

We had two scripted scenes and the rest was all adlibbed. I paste the link here now for you to enjoy.

It's called Punch It Chewie, and none of us are sure if that line is actually said in the film, and neither is Han called 'Hans', but there you go.

What a nice guest appearance from our now dead cat.


Anyway, I've been thinking alot about Trujillo lately, I've not got him out of my head since I first watched 'Some Kind Of Monster', pretty much one of the best films of all time, so he's been in my head for a while, he's a cutie. He's also very good at doing the crab while he plays his bass. There's, I believe, a reason for this, and I'm not sure it while transpire in the same joke form that it has developed over time for myself and others who have created the joke. I'm just going to tell you, Trujillo man is a creature from the sea. That is not a put down, not in the slightest, alot of awesome creatures come from the sea, my Ipod for one. (SEE ALL THE REFERENCES FROM ALL THOSE PREVIOUS BLOG POSTS EVER) It is however, a justified reasoning. What you don't see when they're auditioning bass players for Metlica, is in an earlier scene when we join Kirk on a surfboard, he discovers Trujillo nipping at his toes beneath the briny waves. Hammet the kind hearted 'hey-guys-instead-of-thrashing-it-out-on-each-other-how-about-going-into-the-studio-and-thrashing-it-out-on-our-instruments' lead guitarist for Metlica brougth Trujillo back to the studio, albeit, as a new logo for St. Anger. We all remember how Hammet commented "Needs more spiders" when looking at the album artwork. By bringing this multi limbed crustacean into the studio, he was filling a certain, ju-nay-say-quah, (Read it and take it), it was only after Trujillo's freak out in his new, arid enviornment, which created more destruction then when Hetfield slammed the studio door, twice, they gave him one of Newstead's old basses to nip at. AND THUS. THE NEW BASSIST FOR METALLICA WAS FOUND.


And Bob Rock did cry.

Then they hired Rick Rubin as the producer for Death Magnetic.

Then Dave Grohl personally wrote into Metal Hammer praising Death Magnetic.

And The Unforgiven III made it.

And Bob Rock did cry again.

It's all cool, he's totes happy now the band is touring with the Black Album again. Back in his original glory.


Where was I?



Yeah Trujillo is a lobster or crab, I think everyone says crab but I say lobster, because I love Trujillo and I love lobsters.

Peace out . x

 

 

Read more: (because it's good for your enzymes) http://marjoleinrobertson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/kom-binnen.html

 

http://marjoleinrobertson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/picture-to-word-ratio-is-good-in-this.html 

 

no seen dee fir a lang time.

Sitting up on the hill typing, because it's just too nice to be sat indoors tonight. Perhaps this shows how long it's been since I last blogged; the fact the sun is still shining after eight at night is a huge difference to February, but then, it was snowing yesterday, so the weather is still erratic as it was then, and will always be, here in Shetland. (CUE OPENING THEME)

Not quite mastered the laptop's inbuilt camera.

So news from the Robertson household. I bought shit loads of bread today. Heaps of it. Was emailed from Chaz saying Dirk was heading over an we needed to stock up. I went wild. If your feeling inclined for baked dough come along, we could toast it, grill it, even eat it raw. Was in the supermarket today, (because I was buying bread) had a good look through the magazines. Earlier this year the coop was selling this Marvel collection of all the greatest story lines hard bound for about a fiver each. It was amazing. Checking again to see if they were still stocking it, but nae luck. What I did find was a National Geographic, it was all: "the American Civil War" and I was like "this is great because I want to learn more about it!" Currently all I really know about the Civil War is what Vampire Bill Compton has taught us or about how the crack came to be in the Liberty Bell from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. So I was keen to buy it. I forgot that National Geographic is a basically a picture book of near enough A5 proportions and isn't even hardbound (unlike my beloved, but unfinished, Marvel collection) it was good though, cracking photos of Iceland.

What really pisses me off are the other magazines, the celebrity/lifestyle/fashion magazines. I used to love them, maybe that's why they annoy me even more. I got really angry at Angelina today, pouting on the cover of one, along from her was some actress laughing inanely and then Kirsten Stewart, doing nothing. PER USE. Why do you think yourselves so important as to sell your stories and interviews!? Wait. HA HA AH HA HA HA I write a blog.

HYPOCRISY.



And that's one of the reasons I haven't blogged in a while, because of a lack of focus for these entries I feel like I'm just bombarding the internet with a stream of incoherent, badly slanged driv that should be left in a subconscious somewhere... and then actually spell checked... just in case anyone should ever stumble upon it. There are so many blogs out there that are brilliant, with a focus on something like music, gaming or food, perhaps not even that, not a specific genre, but the blog is actually a well done, concise and interesting follow up of that persons time since last blogzz'in. I don't even give you that in my blog. I've not even given you real news. For my household's news from the last three months all I gave you was: bread. Yes. Today we bought bread, similar as every other 3 or so days (although as I said it was a shit load and I don't think we'll need more for at least five).

So whether to gain focus, carry on regardless or quit this blog. I think it'll be a mixture of the first two with an occasional avoidance of blogging every few months. Therefore, with regards to my blog as it's been heading along since it began, there will actually be no change. I just promise to write more, often.


Awesome.







http://www.hovisbakery.co.uk/

"When Marjolein was four she drank an entire bottle of sewing machine oil"

The title, a quote ladies and gentlemen, from my Mam. I overheard that a few days ago when she was telling Dad about times when she reckoned we didn't need the doctor.

It's all cool she was a Nurse.

In Amsterdam.



SO, NEWS.

Firstly Claire and I got to do a way fun day of photos with John Carolan and Babs Clubb, she did the make up, John took the photos. It was a fun day with a free jukebox full of good heavy metal music. If it were possible to listen to Holy Diver too many times in one day then that would've been it (but it's not).

Here's a couple:

Claire - natural

Claire - full makeup

Me - natural

Me - full makeup

For more photos from John Carolan click here:
http://www.johncarolan.co.uk/

And for the Youtube account for Babs Clubb try here:
http://www.youtube.com/anesthesiashetland


Last time I wrote here it was January, and I hadn't been to any Up Helly Aa's yet. Well I have now, been to three. Let's update you.

For anyone who doesn't know what Up Helly Aa is, it's a Viking Festival we have in Shetland celebrating our Viking Ancestry, the lightening of the nights and also originally started to spread out the drinking from Christmas and New Year so there was less of a binge in December.
(True story)

The best known Up Helly Aa is most likely the one in town; many consider this to be the main one. Always held on the last Tuesday of January, over 900 men, in costume, take part in a procession through the streets of Lerwick pulling a Viking Galley which they then burn in the play park for everyone to enjoy. This is before embarking on a night of performances, music and revellery. Actually I explain it pretty well here:

This is Maddrim's latest addition to Youtube

That's not all Maddrim did for Up Helly Aa, no it is not. We also got to help Promote Shetland with both a radio show (Joe and Marjolein's Radio Hour), a live web stream of the procession and some footage from the day (which will be added to Promote Shetland's page in the near future!) The web stream went live to over 8000 different viewers from around the world! AWESOME.

Here's Shetland Islands Council telling you in yet more detail, there's a lovely picture of Joe and the back of my head, and another of Katya taking care of the TriCaster - mad skillz (Check out how I use the word interviewing twice within eight words):
http://www.shetland.gov.uk/news-advice/PR-MaddrimbroadcastUpHellyAa.asp

Up Helly Aa is awesome, I encourage everyone to come to Shetland to see it, whichever one, there are 10 official festivals, there are also a few others, such as the Waas one, I was Guizer Jarl (as in Head Viking) there in my youth. Proudest moment of my life. Before graduating.

Andy, Annie, The Guizer Jarl and I

Woaaaah, just as I was typing this I got an email:

"Your membership order below has been shipped. You will recieve your membership package shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Your 2012 Ultimate Soldier Megapack contains:
-Megadeth Cyber Army 2012 T-Shirt
-Cyber Army Challenge Coin - Series II
-Deluxe Megadeth Logo Sticker
-Megadeth Cyber Army Laminate
-Welcome Letter from Dave Mustaine
-8x10 Glossy Band Photo
-Cyber Army 2012 pikCARD"

YUUUUS! That's right I am now a proud member of the Megadeth Cyber Army.
Claire got me to join after months of telling me about how awesome it is. It is awesome.
Dave Mustaine, Chris Broderick, David Ellefson and Shawn Drover all have their own forums where you can read messages directly from them, the other members are sweet as, you get early announcements for tickets and deals AND you get the awesome welcome pack that is written above. And finally why wouldn't you want to be a member of the fan club for Megadeth.

I'll share with you the song that got me into Megadeth back at the tender age of 14:

You are welcome

So, join today. Just cllick the bar below to check it out and then join:

I promise next time there will be more chisels, hacksaws, Ipod and chance of gore. I just really gotta go clean my room now. GOODNIGHT.

From your beloved She-Wolf  xxxx



HAPPY NEW YEAR/BURNS NIGHT

So.
This could be awkward.

Or we could push through the long silence and get back into this like I never forgot about you, blog.

Soz pal.


Yeah, apologies I've been away for ages, and the longer I was away the harder it was to return. There is a song about that somewhere, and I think it may be this one:

(Courtesy of Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha-FS_CHmGw User: Z7TomC7Z)

If not, I'll bet you're still glad you listened.
There is a lie in this blog. Can you read it?

So I haven't been here, and I've been waiting to have something very hilarious and entertaining to greet you all with, but I decided I shouldn't wait for something to happen, I should type it. Luckily that's when I got an email from a friend who pointed out the good coverage the MET office made for February's forecast. Here, read it yourself:

UK Outlook for Monday 6 Feb 2012 to Monday 20 Feb 2012:

The forecast for early February remains very uncertain. There appear to be two main scenarios, each equally probable, but which are very different. The first scenario consists of a changeable westerly or southwesterly weather type with rain at times (amounts greatest in the west), and with temperatures noticeably above average for early February, with only occasional frosts. The alternative scenario is that much colder weather with winds mainly from an easterly or northeasterly quarter, will prevail well into February, bringing widespread frosts and snow to some areas. In this scenario it would be the east that was most vulnerable to snowfall.

So, was there a point? In case your wondering, I'll put your worries to rest, I have a good idea for March, so I took some liberties, illegally branding myself as the Meteorological office and have come up with a rough assumption for the third months weathering:

UK Outlook for March 1^st 2012 to March 31^st 2013

So in March yea, it will begin most probably dark, because it should be starting after midnight on February 29^th. We can’t promise anything, as sometimes there’s an added day in that month. Then it should get a lot lighter towards seven o’ clock, unless it’s cloudy; then you may need to keep your car head lights on till nearer eight. There is also a chance, although maybe not, depends on the galactic weather, of an eclipse so you may need to keep your headlights on till 8.15.

The rest of the day should be fairly overcast with chance of rain and as a result slippery roads.

The alternative scenario is that it could turn out to be a nice, sunny day, with temperatures reaching a max of 38 degrees. Factor 50 Recommended.

The pollen count will be somewhere on the grey scale.

Chance of high winds.

Once upon a time my forecast was going to be posted  in the format of video. We filmed it, but I have no idea when it will be ready for your eyes. And I am too kind to leaving you waiting for any longer. So I thought you could read it, reading is better for you after all.*

There is one thing I've done that is all ready to show you. Here is a video Mam, Dirk, Claire and I made on Saturday:

Courtesy of me. Url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVHCryThEOM

This is Mam's filming debut. Well done Chaz!

So now we've all discussed the weather, and I linked in my new film, there's nought much else to say. I was thinking about what direction I'm going to take this blog in for 2012. Not that is really ever had a direction before. I was going to go with some sort of improvement programme but I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. I summed it up in fewer than 140 characters on Twitter:

Look Blog, I forgot about Twitter for a while too.

However, earlier this week (Monday) at our Maddrim Media meeting Cara got us to make a Skills Wall, where we write our skills on a pink post-it, and then on a yellow post-it write what skills we'd like to have. Here are my post-its:

Skills I have

Skills I'd like

So. In a gripping tale of adventure and huckleberry finn I'll let you know how that develops.
And my Ipod is well and truly dead. I know because I charged it overnight and nothing happened. I'll try opening it up in the shed later. Actually that would be way more interesting then that skills thing. Yeah! Let's open my Ipod!

See you next time for some core slicing fun.


XXXXXX MARJOLEIN

*Yes that was the lie.