Results of ISC#4

After a very exciting voting process, the results of ISC#4 can now be announced. The differences are smaller than ever, also due to the fact that the amount of voters in this edition was smaller than ever. However, I am happy to announce that the 9 voters represent in total 8 different nationalities, which makes this a truly international song contest. :)
You can click here to see the full voting process in Eurovision style. The only thing that is missing are the pretty ladies and excited gentlemen that are announcing the votes, but I'm sure you can do without them.
A big thanks goes out to all people who have voted in my contest! Without you this contest wouldn't have been possible and without you the results would have also been different. Unfortunately I have decided that this has been the last edition of ISC. From now on I will share my music in a different way. Every two weeks I will write about 3-5 unknown songs related to a certain theme. More information about the themes will be available in my next post.

For those of you who actually enjoyed this kind of online song contest, I can recommend that you take a look at two online song contests that I participate in: World Song Contest On Net and Planet Earth Song Contest. My role in those contests is usually the same role as the Netherlands play at the real Eurovision song contest: I'm usually eliminated in the semi-finals, although unlike the Netherlands at Eurovision I actually do send in good quality music. However, I really enjoy participating in these contests and finding new music from other countries.

ISC #4

Ladies and gentlemen,

The moment has arrived again. It's time for the fourth edition of the International Song Contest on this blog. This time I took a bit more time to collect only the very best songs for you. I found most of these songs via the online song contests I participate in, however this time I also had a little help from my friends. So a special thanks goes to Laura (Estonia), José (Mexico), Līna (Latvia) and Tiina (Finland) for helping me select a song from their country!

Unfortunately some reasonably good songs didn't make it through the strict selection procedure, such as the Swedish modern-day equivalent of the band Europe (you know, those guys from the Final Countdown), the Kazakh Amy Winehouse and the Uzbek Shakira. Below you can find the list of all 22 songs that did make it, the links to YouTube and a recap video with a fragment of each of the 22 songs.

If you want to help decide who will win this edition of the ISC, I kindly ask you to make a top 10 of your favourite songs and submit them via the form at the bottom of this post. You can vote until 24 January 9:30pm CET. You can vote for your own country (or even the song you helped pick for this contest), as long as you vote honestly. After the voting has ended I will publish the results on my blog and make a fancy animation of the voting process, to give you the feeling like you're watching the results of the real Eurovision song contest. Thank you in advance for voting!

Recap video:

 
I had some issues with uploading the video to YouTube which did't allow me to place the video on my blog due to a copyright claim. You should also be able to access the video without ads on my YouTube-channel by clicking here.

List of participants:

1.	Norway	Tone Damli	Never Look Back
2.	Czech Republic	Verona	Hey Boy
3.	Netherlands	Nielson	Beauty & The Brains
4.	Switzerland	TinkaBelle	The Man I Need
5.	Germany	Revolverheld	Keine Liebeslieder
6.	Sweden	Paulina Starborn	Never Gonna Let Me Go
7.	Italy	Modà feat. Emma	Arriverà
8.	Slovakia	Celeste Buckingham	Run Run Run
9.	Lithuania	Marijonas, Mantas & Mia	Celebrate Basketball
10.	Romania	Connect-R	Vara Nu Dorm
11.	South Africa	Elvis Blue	Lighthouse
12.	Estonia	Greip	Vihma Loits
13.	Slovenia	Atomik Harmonik	Choco La
14.	Portugal	Aurea	Busy (For Me)
15.	Australia	Sam Clark	Broken
16.	Latvia	BrainStorm	Lantern
17.	South Korea	Yisabel	I Wish I Can Fly
18.	Finland	Satellite Stories	Family
19.	Mexico	Julieta Venegas	Me Voy
20.	Greece	Demy	Poses Xiliades Kalokairia
21.	Faroe Islands	Eivør	Undo Your Mind
22.	Denmark	Christopher	Against All Odds

Voting is over!

Top 200 of my all-time favorite music

It's the end of the year, which meant a lot of work for me this time. I was trying to put together a photobook of 2011 and 2012 containing all my travel photos because I had a discount voucher that was valid until 31 December 2012 and also I was working on a list with my all-time favorite music.

I listened to more than 500 songs and ranked them with the initial idea to make a top 300. However, due to time constraints and the feeling that the songs after song number 201 were not really worth being in the list of my favorite music, I decided that a top 200 would be enough for this year.

Since Blogspot makes it impossible for me to post the list on my weblog, I had to put it on another old website I still have. Click HERE to view the list, which for the first time contains hyperlinks to the music videos of some songs.

I wish you all a happy and productive 2013.

Random people I meet, part 1 (?)

A little more than one month ago I had a job interview in Eindhoven. The interview went well (although it didn't lead to a job offer) and when I got back to the train station I learnt that due to a train accident there were no trains going on the route between Eindhoven and my home town Houten, so I was looking for an alternative route. After looking at the map one more time I realized that I could also take the "touristic" route. For the Dutch readers (or the foreigners that love to use Google Maps): I would go from Eindhoven further south to Venlo, then to Nijmegen and finally I would travel back to my hometown Houten via Utrecht Central Station. I had no idea how long this was going to take, but it couldn't be more than the 3 hours I would have to wait at the train station if I didn't do it, so I hopped on the intercity to Venlo.

You should know that people in the southern part of the Netherlands are very social people who really like to talk. This led to an interesting situation. I was sitting in this train when a man sat down opposite to me. This is not special and I was reading a book, so I didn't pay too much attention to him. Out of the blue the man said to me (in Dutch): "Hi, how are you?"
Though this is uncommon in my country, I just replied in a friendly manner and asked him how he was doing. He was doing fine. Great. Now I could read more in my book.

Or not. The man had been silent for about a minute and then he started talking (more or less to himself) about how there was yet another disruption of the train traffic and how it could be that the Dutch Railways could not prevent such disruptions. I felt it wouldn't be very nice if I just kept on reading, so I put my book down and started nodding towards the man that was sitting opposite to me and took a better look at him. His hair was messy: he was getting bald but he seemed to think that as long as he would let his hair grow longer it would go unnoticed. Furthermore the man had dirty clothes and long fingernails. It was clear to me that this man was living alone. When he started talking about his canary and how much work it was to clean up the cage of this bird ("because it's always escaping from the cage! You know how difficult it is to catch a loose canary?!?"), I knew for sure.
I tried to ignore the weird things this man said to me and have a normal conversation with him, as this was clearly what he wanted. We talked about the beauty of the southern part of the Netherlands, getting stuck with your bicycle while cycling through the forest and the economic crisis. The highlight of the conversation was when the man told me he had to live from unemployment benefits and how proud he was that he came up with an idea to save money: not switching on any lights at night.
"It's really not a problem for me to pee in the dark," he said.

The man got off the train in his home town Deurne and I looked around in the train compartment. It could have been my imagination, but it seemed like the people were relieved that this man and his dirty stories were gone.
I didn't feel relief though. In fact I felt a bit sorry for this man. As I started reading in my book again I thought about how this man was probably living a very lonely life, with his canary and his house without lights.

7 songs to counter the Winter Blues

When that the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder, people are more likely to get a sad feeling. This phenomenon is known as the Winter Blues. This blog is written with the purpose to counter those sad feelings with music. In just 7 songs I will guide you to a happy feeling. Based on every song I will give you an advice on how to become a happier person. You can also see these 7 songs as your personal 7-step guide to happiness.

I guarantee you that you will have a happier feeling after listening to all these songs.

1. Wake up the right way (Alex Day - Good Morning Sunshine)
Have you ever wondered why British people always seem so happy? A happy feeling starts with waking up the right way. The video below shows how British people like to start their day. It's clear what you need to do with this step: wake up with a smile, sing a happy song, wear a colorful t-shirt and do crazy things with the people close to you.
You can start with that new lifestyle tomorrow, for now it will be sufficient just to watch the video below.

2. Be happy with what you have (Gerry & The Pacemakers - I Like It)
One of the first steps on your way to happiness is to appreciate what you have. It's always better to think about the things that you do have than to think about the things that you don't have. So please start up the video below, watch the old commercial about Mikey who gets used as a guinea pig by his older brothers, close your eyes, listen to the song and think about all the good things in your life. Friends, family, beautiful things you have seen or maybe even memories of a warm spring day in the park. Or just that delicious chocolate you always eat... Anything will do.

Are you feeling happier already? Yes? Good, you are well on your way to become a happy person. Are you not feeling happy yet? Wow, you certainly are a tough one. Maybe the next song will do the trick for you.

3. Jump up and down a few times (Munamies - Pomppufiilis)
You always feel happier when you are physically active. Therefore step 3 on the road to happiness requires you to jump up and down a few times. I know it sounds silly, but just do it. It works. To give you energy while while you're jumping, here is a video with an egg-man who is singing (in Finnish) about the bouncy feeling he is experiencing.

And if you get tired from the jumping, you may also sit down and just happily move your head a bit from left to right for the rest of the song with a huge smile on your face. That should also help to make you feel happy.

4. Don't create a monster; fight your fears (The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray)
The next step is an important one. To become a happy person you must know yourself and your weaknesses. You should actively do something to make sure your bad qualities don't make you into a bad or annoying person. Moreover, you should never be afraid to do something that you want to do. Keep in mind that at the end of their lives most people feel more regret about the things that they didn't do than about the things that they did do.

Unfortunately Ray from the video below hadn't read my blog yet. As a consequence, he decided to create a monster. Luckily he has a friend who did read my blog and fights his fear, a.k.a. the monster.

5. Think about how it's all going to be alright in the end (He Is We - Happily Ever After)
It's not always easy to maintain a happy feeling. At times you may be worried about something or it may seem that things are going wrong. If you encounter such a situation, just think about how it will all be alright in the end. Can you imagine yourself 5 years from now still worrying about the things you are worried about at that moment? I bet you can't. See, you know it's all going to be alright. Then why should you let it ruin your good mood now?

In line with this, you can listen to the following feel-good song:

6. Do something you like to do (Alexander Rybak - Roll With The Wind)
If there is one singer who always gives me a happy feeling, it's Alexander Rybak with his everlasting smile and his violin. So if I select 7 songs to guide you to a happy feeling, I should also include a song by the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009.

I chose a song with the title "Roll With The Wind". It's quite difficult to come up with an advice from this song. I guess the main idea of all songs by Alexander Rybak is that everyone should just do whatever they like to do. If you like to make catchy pop music with a violin, then just do it. If you're happy being in love with a fairytale, then just do it. If one day you wake up and you feel like rolling with the wind (and you actually know what this is), then I guess you should also just do it.

7. Maintain your happy feeling throughout the day (Scouting For Girls - Gotta Keep Smiling)
There you go, you're in a good mood now. And is that a smile on your face? Yes! It is! Congratulations, you have made it to the final step and you already have a smile on your face. Now you just need to make sure that you will continue to have this happy feeling for the rest of your day. How can you do that? Scouting For Girls, my favourite band, has the following advice on how to do this:

Have a happy rest of the day and don't forget to keep smiling!

A new design!

After three years of having the same old boring design, I'm confident that my blog looks a lot better now and invites you to come back some other time. The background photo may be a bit distracting, so it's possible that I change it later if I find a better photo.

List of changes:
- New background photo
- New, more attractive, font type
- The "about me" section has been removed
- It's now easier to find back old blog posts through the new search-function
- You can now ask Google to translate my words into your own language
- It's now possible to comment on my blog posts without having to login first

So if you have any remarks or tips about the new design of my blog, feel free to leave a comment. :)

Penpalling without a pen

Penpals are defined on Wikipedia as people who regularly write eachother, particularly via postal mail. In the early 1970s my mother already had penpals, with whom she exchanged long letters. Back then penpalling was a very exciting hobby: one did not know a lot about other countries and therefore it was a great way to get to know other cultures. It was however a very time consuming hobby and a lot of time would pass before you would know whether or not you got along with the other person.

With the introduction of internet penpalling has gotten a lot easier. It has not only become easier to find penpals with interests that are similar to yours, also a new kind of penpalling emerged: e-mail penpalling. Obviously this is a lot faster than the old fashioned snail mail and it allows you to quickly build international friendships. At the moment exchanging e-mails with people from other countries may be my biggest hobby. In this post I will share my experiences about penpalling and tell you where you can find your own penpals.

The beginning

I don't recall the exact circumstances, but in March 2007 I somehow discovered a website designed to help people find penpals. The website was simple: I had to fill in a couple of field about myself such as birthday, my hobbies and the languages I speak. After filling in these basic information I could start penpalling. In the first week I received a lot of mails, as my profile was listed under "new members". Unfortunately, due to the very basic design of this website, it was not easy to find suitable people to write to, since the information about potential penpals was also very basic.

I kept on writing messages to the few nice people that I met on that website until in November 2008, while being bored in the university library between two lectures, I discovered another website: Interpals. On this website one could make a comprehensive profile and besides this the search engine was just brilliant. I quickly signed up and in the past 4 years I never regretted this decision for a single moment.

Friends all around the world

Soon I started making real friends all around the world. Some of them wrote me lengthy mails that consisted up to 3 pages in Microsoft Word, others wrote me a couple of short messages and then invited me to chat on MSN or Facebook. All went well, until I got an idea on how to get even more fun out of this website. In the summer of 2010 I was planning to do volunteer work in Estonia and I wanted to learn a bit about the country before I would arrive there so I sent a message to some Estonian people on Interpals. In the end I became good friends with one of them and we decided to meet in Tallinn. My new friend picked me up from the airport, showed me around the city in such a way that I still believe Tallinn is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and I quickly realized that this was something I should do more often.

In the years that followed I traveled a lot. A few months before each travel I would use Interpals to find friends in the cities I would visit, send a message to them and then see how it would go. In 2011 I made a trip of 11 days during which I met 4 penpals from Interpals and I still consider that trip still to be the best trip I have ever made. I learnt that there is nothing as good as being shown around by a local in their home town. They can show you all the good places in town, take you to places that a normal tourist would never see and if you're lucky you become good friends afterwards.
I may have gotten a bit off-topic here, but at least you know now why I always seem to have friends abroad to meet up with during my travels.

My experiences

Over the years I had lots of penpals and despite the fact that every long e-mail communication is doomed to end one day I stayed friends with quite a few people. Below you can read the stories behind three of my longest lasting international friendships.

My oldest penpal is Yodit from Ethiopia. She first wrote to me in March 2007, when I was still new to this. We quickly started talking on MSN and became good friends. One day she asked me for my home address in the Netherlands. I was confused and didn't know what to expect, but I gave her my address. I had already forgotten about the fact that I gave her my address when one week before it was my birthday I suddenly received a big brown envelope in my mailbox. It was a birthday present from Yodit: a cd with traditional Ethiopian music. It gave me a really special feeling to receive such a present from a relatively unknown country. Over the years we haven't always been that close friends, but we never lost touch. I still plan to go to Ethiopia one day to meet my first penpal in person, but I'm still not sure when I will have the possibility to do that.

The second penpal that ever sent me a real letter plus some gifts was Reinhardt from South Africa. We started off writing in our native languages (Dutch and Afrikaans are really quite similar), but changed to English soon as long messages in Afrikaans are not really easy for me to read. The messages kept on getting longer and longer and in the end Reinhardt even sent me photos related to a certain topic in each e-mail. Those e-mails were always a pleasure to receive, although it took me quite a long time to reply to them as well. Even though we have stopped exchanging e-mails we still talk from time to time on Facebook or WhatsApp and I still have an outstanding invitation to come to South Africa.

The story of how I met the third penpal I'm going to mention here is an interesting one. In my final year at the university I met a lot of exchange students. Soon I started to like a Lithuanian exchange student and we had a lot of classes together, so I had plenty of opportunities to go and talk to her. I just didn't know what to say. So I decided to search for a Lithuanian penpal who could teach me some funny pick up lines in Lithuanian. This is how I met Rima. It never worked out with that Lithuanian classmate (one day I tried to talk to her, but my pronunciation was so bad that she didn't even recognize my words as Lithuanian), but I became good friends with Rima. We already met eachother three times (once in 2011 and twice when I was in Lithuania last summer) and always have a good time because we share the same sense of humor.

Final words

I could have mentioned many more wonderful stories here, but I won't, because otherwise this blog post would be way too long. I hope that my stories have gotten you as enthusiastic about this hobby as I am (if you weren't enthusiastic already).

If you want to meet new people from other countries as well, you can register yourself at www.interpals.net.