Four words:

MTV. Video. Music. Awards.

Boy, were those crap. I don't think I've ever seen so many 'artists' and so little talent in one place. Why did I watch it? Well hell, it was kind of like a train wreck: I couldn't stop watching, even though it hurt like hell. Okay, so I fast-forwarded a lot. Who can blame me? I ended up only watching what I really wanted to see, and what I really wanted to poke fun at.

Jamie Foxx hosted the evening. If I remember correctly, he's supposed to be some kind of comedian, except for the fact he wasn't funny at all. I didn't laugh at all, because his 'jokes' were cheap and he got most of his laughs dissing artists. There was exactly one moment where I laughed:

Jamie Foxx is on stage, boring us all to death (except, he calls it 'joking'. Whatever). On a screen behind him appears an artist, and then Jamie tells something about that artist. Michael Jackson appears. I sit up straight, wondering if it's going to be

a) a surgery joke
b) a kids joke
c) a look-how-weird-he-is joke or
d) all of the above

Turns out it's a children joke. Ha ha. Hear me laugh. Anyway, Foxx rambles on about the Madison Square Garden concerts, saying it's $2500,-, which means it's $500,- a Jackson (thank you. We couldn't have figured that out ourselves), and then he says something along the lines of:

"But children get in for free."

And he bombed!! There were a few uneasy laughs, and lots (I do mean lots) of"'booo!!!" and negative sounds from the audience.

The audience did not think this joke was funny.

I instantly got more respect for the musicians in the audience, and it was the first time I actually laughed at Jamie Foxx. Serves him right, I'd say. Ha! Eat this, mr. Foxx.

N'Sync won the Award for Best Dance Video. What the fuck? N'SYNC?!?!?! Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" was a much better video, and far, far superior to N'Sync's pathetic attempts at choreography. Ah well, N'Sync was surprised as well; one of the members even said Fatboy Slim was robbed. You got that right, pal.

U2 won the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, which is a Lifetime Achievement Award, and they deserved it. Congrats, U2. I did notice this was the first time in several years that this particular award was called its full name, "Michael Jackson Vide Vanguard Award". Usually, they just call it the Vanguard Award. I believe it was renamed in either '91 or '92, to honor Michael Jackson's career, and the inscription does say "MJ Video Vanguard Award".

Christopher Walken rocks. Yes, he does. I'd marry him in a heartbeat, except he's old enough to be my dad :). He was brilliant in "Sleepy Hollow" and in "Nick of Time". He came on, he made a joke and he got a standing ovation. I'm not the only one who loves him, it seems. He announced N'Sync.

"Oh joy," I thought. "More crappy music."

Now, I actually like N'Sync the teeniest bit better than say, the Backstreetboys (especially because one of the BSB was wearing a skirt. What was up with that?), but even I had to admit N'Sync looked goddamn awful. I wanted to slap whoever did their costumes. Their choreography was nothing new (N'Sync? Something new? Original? I think not) and their performance was kinda boring.

Their act ended with a close-up on a sign that said "Kings of Pop".

::insert loud Marleen-groan here::

Kings of Pop? What the fuck? Since when? Name one song of their that isn't exactly like their previous one. Name one move of theirs that isn't copied from other artists. The only reason they won so many MTV awards is because they're at the top of the charts--no one will be able to convince me they deserved the Best Dance Award.

Ngughghghghuuh. (<--- trying to strange self)

Anyway, this where the VMA gets good. See, the 's' at the end of "kings" dropped, leaving "King of Pop". Then that disappears. Then Michael Jackson's silhouette appears. Then Michael Jackson himself appears.

And proceeds to wipe the floor with the N'Sync wussies. His forty-five second dance routine showed his imitators exactly how it's done. He got a standing ovation, and he made a huge PR stance without saying a word. He rocks my world.

So, in a nutshell, here's what's worth watching:

* Michael Jackson, who looked damn good (if you believe the tabloids, you'd think he doesn't have a face left), getting the audience to their collective feet.

* Christopher Walken, who possesses an amazing dance talent, judging from the Fatboy Slim video.

* Alicia Keys, who is an amazing singer.

For laughs:

* Britney Spears badly lip-syncing her way through Yet Another Awful song (really, she couldn't even lip-sync her own goddamn song)

* Jamie Foxx, who was so bad he was funny

* Mya looking relieved--probably hoping this was the last time she'd be performing with the other skanks

* Destiny's Child; I just laugh at them

Real quick, because I got a train to catch in twenty minutes. I just found out what the title of Spear Britney's new single is going to be: "I'm a Slave 4 U". That's right. It's spelled like that. I hate, loathe, despise language like that. I can't stand those senseless abbreviations like 'u' for 'you', 'u r' for 'you are' and '2' for 'too'. Don't fucking do that! It's annoying! It's make you look like a hormone-crazed, illiterate thirteen-year-old schoolboy with too much time on his hands. It's chatroom language. Try and use some of that shit on boards like the Straightdope boards. They'll kick your ass so hard you forgot which side of yours was the front.

Now I know Spear Britney isn't the first to do this, but she is the most annoying person to do this. Ugh.

Gotta run.

My parents are going to watch the Estland - Holland soccermatch. I'm not. I'm pissed. We lost from Ireland last Saturday, and now we can't participate in the World Cup. We were actually playing pretty good in the first half; after that, we slacked off. We also didn't get a penalty we deserved; that Irish goalie was definitely grabbing at Van Nistelrooy's legs, no doubt about it. Fucking German referee.

Hey, cool. Commercial with gay couple :). I love my country.

Current Mood: angry.
Current music: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody.

Found a questionnaire in someone's journal earlier today:

1. What is the first thing you do after waking up? Bitch, moan and complain. Then, read and reply to e-mail.

2. What was the last memorable book you read? "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", by Agatha Christie. I'd read this book before, and I was really surprised by the twist. Now that I knew who did it, I was especially looking for clues and hints, and finding them, too!

3. When was the last time you smiled all day? All day? Jeez, jaw-ache :). Lemme think... probably today. I had a lot of fun today.

4. Which color have the walls in your bedroom? Mostly white.

5. Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Hopefully, I'll be a somewhat successful journalist :). I'll be working with books and languages, maybe, but I will be having a good time.

6. In which kind of store would you max your credit card? Bookstore. Clothing store.

7. Have you ever been in love? Yup, with N. in my third year of high school.

8. Do you like stuffed animals? For decoration only.

9. Can you quote Shakespeare? "A rose by any other name will smell as sweet." "To be or not to be."

10. Do you like playing baseball? Nope, prefer basketball.

11. Are you a neat freak? I prefer 'organizationally challenged' :).

12. What is the worst injury you have ever given someone? I once accidentally gave my best friend a black eye. I'm so sorry, M.

13. Have you ever fired a gun? Thankfully, no.

14. Do you like swimming in lakes? No.

15. Did you have a crush on any of your teachers? No. Though my mentor is kinda cute (young, bleached blond).

16. Have you ever been lost in a bad part of a city? Oldenzaal doesn't have any bad parts.

17. Would you rather have a mint or fruit flavored gum? Fruit.

18. Do you ever eat food right out of cans or jars? Yep.

19. Has your mind ever gone blank? Uhhh... what was the question?

20. Are you kind? I like to think so.

21. Would you give a needy person the shirt off your back? Sure.

22. Do you have any beanie babies? What are those?

23. Is the glass half full, or empty? Half full.

24. Are you a righty, lefty or ambidextrous? Right-handed. Though I wish I were ambidextrous.

25. Do you exercise or work out regularly? Unless you count the bike-ride to the station, and from the station to school, no.

26. Could you kill if your life was threatened? No.

27. Do you type with your fingers on the right keys? You mean there's a right way to type?

Current Mood: achy fingers.
Current music: Carmina Burana.

My sister is watching "Melrose Place". Why, I do not know. It's not as if she's seen this particular episode fourteen gazillion times before. Hell, I recognize this ep, and I don't even follow this series! Had no school today. I spent my time well. I had my driving lesson, which didn't go too bad this time, and the rest of the day I sat on this chair and surfed the Internet. Yay, me.

I also had an epiphany today.

I'm weird.

I don't watch what everyone else watches. I don't like "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer", "Angel" or "Dawson's Creek". I don't like today's music (I just went through top-40 and realized I didn't like a single one of them. None. As in zilch, zero, nada). I don't like the movies that are in theaters, except that I'm probably going to see "Blow" sooner or later because hell, a movie with Johnny Depp can't be that bad. I read, which is sort of unheard of.

Instead, I watch obscure TV-series that weren't that good ("The Sentinel", anyone?), or American series never aired here ("Queer as Folk"), or Britcoms like "Fawlty Towers" (John Cleese rocks). I listen to Michael Jackson, Savage Garden and eighties bands that don't exist anymore, like Foreigner. I hurl at the likes of Britner Spears, Christina Aguilera, and stupid, immature, slick, seen-one-know-'em-all boybands like N'Sync and the Backstreetboys. If all those 'music artists' (::snort::) were to be wiped out tomorrow, I'd throw a big party. Go, you talentless hussies; go and grow some talent, please!

And no, Destiny's Child, blatantly copying the choreography from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to use it in your "Bootylicious" video isn't flattery, nor may you call it an 'homage'. It's stealing, it's unimaginative and it's unoriginal. So stop existing. Now.

To N'Sync: if you say one more time that your 'song', "Pop" is in Michael Jackson-style, I am flying down there to personally rip y'all's heads off, mkay? "Pop" is a third-rate song. It's annoying. It's whiny. It's nothing like any other Jackson-song. I know that you're happy to be performing with Michael next Saturday, but trust me, I'm not. Neither am I happy that Britney Spears and fucking Eminem will be there (especially Eminem--that fucking misogynistic, homophobic, pathetic excuse for a rapper).

Okay, rant over :).

Current Mood: pissed off.
Current Music: Say, Say, Say -- Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson.

Second day of school; a day that was half 'eh' and half 'pretty damn interesting'. TBH, which I was really looking forward to, was boring as hell, and it didn't help that the teacher, let's call him 'N', was somewhat of a jerk. 'Somewhat', because I think he's sorta got a point, but on the other hand, he's being... unfair. He said he wasn't going to tolerate people being late. Fair, you'd say, but everyone, and I do mean everyone, in my class travels to school by train. No one in my class actually lives in Zwolle, you see, we're all from surrounding cities.

And our railroad system... leaves something to be desired, to put it mildly. There are often delays and they rarely arrive on time. If the train is late, the train's late. Circumstances beyond our control. We can't help it. Teacher N. said that, to avoid being late, we should take a train earlier. Nu-huh. Not in this universe, pal. If I take a train earlier, I'm at school fifty minutes before class start and then I'd have to get out of bed an hour earlier. Not gonna happen. He's just going to have to deal with it.

Okay, bitchfest over.

In my free period, I hung out with a bunch of classmates, doing the 'let's get to know one another' thing. We already had one thing incommon: neither one of us liked our TBH teacher N. Whee. Common ground. Anyway, we talked a bit, found out where everyone's from and tested each other out. It was nice, really, I like them. Of course, I don't fool myself, I'm not going to like everybody in my class, and everyone's not gonna like me.

Tomorrow I don't have classes, but I do have driving lessons. I'm nervous. I'm not that great a driver; I'm way too nervous behind the wheel, which is a bad trait to have in traffic. I need to work on that. We'll see.

Current mood: tired.
Current music: Michael Jackson - You Rock My World.

I survived my first day of school. I'm exhausted, which doesn't come as a surprise to me. I had four (count 'em, four) hours of Journalism class straight. Well, 'straight' with two fifteen-minute breaks (much needed, lemme tell you; after listening to the teacher talk four eighty minutes, you bet your ass 90% of my class needed a smoke!).

Mighty interesting, this class; we didn't actually do much, as it was our first class ever, but the teacher was cool and nice and very, very good. He gave me a book :). The classroom was cramped, though, there were twenty-six students in a class designed for about twenty. And there were 'only' fifteen computers (very s-l-o-w computers, too, especially the mouse reacted irritatingly late to commands).

Tomorrow, I've got 'Recht' ('Law' or 'Justice'--I'm not sure which translation is the best) and TBH ('Taalbeheersing', in which I learn how to manipulate words and such). I'm especially looking forward to TBH; I'm a language freak, really, I love reading and I'm always correcting other people's spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Oooh, and the train trip to school sucked; my train to Zwolle had a twenty-minute delay. Good thing I took a train earlier, or I wouldn't have made it to school in time :).

Current mood: happy; excited.
Current music: Savage Garden - A Thousand Words.

Okay, it's exactly one hour before I have to leave in order to catch my train. I'm so nervous I'm taking a train half an hour earlier, just in case something happens. In case I miss the train. In case my bike, which is already stalled at the train-station in Zwolle since last Thursday, is stolen and I have to walk to school. In case I get lost on my way to school (which is silly, because school is a ten minute walk away from the train-station). Me? Paranoid? What makes you say that?

I also did my homework this morning. Starting in new school books is always interesting, and this time was no exception. I had to read about the creation of a news article; how to write one, how to read one, how to collect information, and so on. Quite interesting. Turns out there are five "W"s and one "H" you have to know in order to write a good news article: who? what? where? when? why? how? I can do this; I know I can. The beginning is always easy, after all :).

I'm more worried about Economics, actually, since that's the class I failed my high school exams on two years ago. Economics... I just don't understand it. Or, more accurately, I don't understand the mathematics involved. It's no surprise, I'm no good at maths either. Hand me a sheet with math problems, and I'm so lost. I like languages a lot better; I had English, French and German classes in high school, and I was the best English student in my class.

Well, a friend of mine suggested I keep a blog so we'd know what happens in each other's lifes, so here I am :). My name is Marleen, I'm eighteen years old and a first year Journalism student (well, technically, I'm not a student yet. My first schoolday is tomorrow). My hobbies include surfing the 'net, reading (a *lot*), writing and listening to music.

I went out with a group of friends yesterday evening, sort of a belated birthday celebration for one of my closest friends. It made me realize that I'm really not that much of a party-goer; I had a good time, but still... I disliked the loud music (I didn't even *like* the music), the smoke, the fact that we could barely hear each other, and the fact my feet fucking hurt (I wore new shoes. Probably not such a brilliant idea after all). So I went back home early, around 1:30 am, leaving the rest behind. I'm sure they had a great time--and so did I because our neighborhood party wasn't over yet :).

I'm pretty nervous for my first school day tomorrow; new school, new class, new teachers, and close to two and a half hours sitting in the train every day.

Okay, not every day. I don't actually have classes on Wednesdays and Fridays, which makes for a great, long weekend, especially since my first class on Mondays starts at 1:30 pm.

M'kay, let's talk hobbies. I read. A lot. Books, magazines, articles, newspapers, you name it, I read it. If bored, I'll read the back of a milk carton. I went to the library yesterday and borrowed "The Lord of the Rings", by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's a classic, but I haven't read it yet. I suppose it's a great book for in the train. I also took a Stephen King book, and Sue Townsend's "Adrian Mole" books. Plus some Agatha Christies I've already read, and some random murder mysteries (I never said I had taste *g*).

I'm also addicted to fanfiction. I read lots of it, too much, probably. For the uninitiated, "fanfiction" are stories, poems, haikus etcetera starring the characters of one's favorite TV-show, movie or book. The writers take the characters of those shows and movies and write stories about them. The fanfiction community is huge. Thousands of webpages dedicated to fanfiction, and hundreds of thousands stories written. For every show imaginable, there will be stories out there. From "Star Trek: The Original Series" (ST:TOS) to "Full House".

Michela Ecks has created a pretty good History of Fanfiction chronology, for those of you who want to have a better understanding of the phenomenon. A very good essay on Mary Sue-ism can be found here. cmshaw (no capital 'c', thankyouverymuch) has the best list of fanfiction definitions.

I read fanfiction for various shows, but mainly for The Sentinel, an American sci-fi show about a cop with heightened senses (i.e., he can hear, see, smell, touch and taste better than average, and is called a "Sentinel") and his sidekick, a young anthropology student who studies him. Other shows I read for include Queer as Folk (the U.S. version), Stargate SG-1, and The Dukes of Hazzard.