The non-hip hippies

It has been almost a month since the last time I updated the blog. But for good reason.

Now my new website is up and running (more like walking, but I am getting there!). I feel very motivated about it and I hope that this will last. You can find it here: http://thenonhiphippies.org/.
I will do my best to keep updating Stories From Freelandia and keep it as a personal blog, more focused on my daily routine and madness, while in the non-hip hippies one you will be able to find the more "serious" stuff.

To summarize the last month, it was filled with cold, a few days of sunshine and some fun wedding-related deliveries. The wedding favors are now here, both me and the groom-to-be have our clothes and I have to admit that I start to feel a bit panicky from time to time. I would describe it more as an intense excitement but there is a tiny bit of fear in there about how will everyone get along, if the weather will be relatively good and if I will be a sobbing mess the whole wedding day. Through in the mix a 3-day stomach flue and you can understand that I am not the calmest person on Earth these days.

Happy Earth Day, by the way :)

The non-hip hippies. What is it all about?

Happy Easter! (to those of you who celebrate it now)

I have just completed a killer project of 56 articles about CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines that lasted for two weeks and even though I am exhausted, I am also thrilled that I can now update you on the ideas that have been boiling the last few days.

As you might have noticed, my (now ex-) website, "Alexia's Writings and Designs" is down. But there is a new website, called "The non-hip hippies". So what happened? Let's take it from the start... In October 2012 that I decided to stop looking for a job as an architect and start working as a freelance writer instead, I had no clue about how much writers charge for articles, blog posts, ghost-writing and the like. So I just made low-ball offers on E-lance and got jobs.

My clients were thrilled with me, even though I am not a native speaker and all of them were. That was great, because it helped me build my confidence. But after two months I realized that the reason they were thrilled was because they got good quality writing for peanuts. I was not disappointed at all, because I felt I was still in training and indeed some clients gave me the chance to do writing jobs I had zero experience doing. Essentially they trained me for free in writing search engine optimized posts and fitting irrational keywords in articles in a way that it would look natural. It was a start.

But after a few months of working like crazy and getting about the 1/3 of what my partner gets as a PhD student, I decided I should ask around and see what others charge for their writing services. So I joined the "Freelance Writer's Den". I was too busy to read all the resources about "how to make good money writing" but I had enough time to give them my website address and ask for an evaluation.

The harsh feedback

And then the evaluation came... Even though it hurt to read, I will write it all down here, so as to save other people who want to make a proper writer's website:

-I used an Oscar Wilde quote in one of my pages, to explain my transition from architecture to writing. The so called "The Den Mother" wrote to me that if a writer needs a quote of a writer to tell their story, no one will trust the creativity of said writer.

-The Den Mother was supper confused by the fact that I had a shop that combined postcards and writing services and was so hard to navigate within it.

-The Den Mother said my resume was super lengthy and pretty mush useless because it showed that I have studied something totally irrelevant to writing.

-She also said that all my client feedback was useless because I did not link back to the clients websites or mail addresses and they were mentioned with their E-lance usernames aka useless stuff.

-Then she went on to say that my "policies" page was to long and intimidating.

-She did not stop there and commented on my Louis Carol, Alice in Wonderland pic, saying that it is stupid for a designer to use other peoples images.

-As if that was not clear yet, she went on to say that my website was absolutely confusing, she had no idea what I was trying to sell, where were my sample writings and was I a real person?? (that last comment was because I did not have enough photos of myself, as she noted).

-And because I was not devastated enough, she also said that the blog page on the website was hard to read.

Sooooo... My first impulse was to unsubscribe from her website and bury my head in the sand. Five deep breaths later I realized that I have asked her for the feedback and she did an amazing job. Also the feedback was supposed to help me and it was not a personal attach.

Two deep breaths later I was able to share my disappointment with my partner, who had a great idea.

The great idea

He told me that it is meaningless to try and promote myself as a writer, as there are thousands of them. It is also meaningless to promote myself as an architect because there are also thousands of them and most of these thousands are also unemployed. He said that I should present the qualities that are unique about me.

We thought about it for a while and concluded that what I have that most other people do not have is a love for writing, and architectural background that included strong design training, and an architectural research project focused on the production of food in urban environments. I am also a vegan (trying my best) and in love with old-school sustainable living. This is who I am. A vegan geek with a deep love for all things natural plus a love for research.

So, after discussing more with my ever-so-patient partner, we concluded that my website should not be about trying to sell my self as a content writer or a designer. It should be a documentation of the research that I do in my everyday life, because that is what fulfills me. It should be full of articles about cob houses
            and herbal tinctures
   and river stones
             and plant-based recipes
                             and how to grow your own food
              and how to make your own wine
                                     and how to make fuel out of rotten produce
                                                     and mythology
                                          and environmental friendly cleaning products
                               and reviews on my favorite books
                                                             and....

And now what?

Until the site is up and running, I will start writing articles and uploading them on scribd. Once the site is ready, there will be links of the articles on the website. In the meantime, I will be posting the scribd links on facebook and I will make sure that the articles are printer-friendly versions.

During the following two weeks we (partner and I, that is) are also going to upload a youtube video or two, explaining what the site will be all about, who we are and what drives is.

I am very excited and cannot wait to see how this goes.

Wish me luck and stay tuned!

Irony

Yesterday night and until early in the morning today I have been writing articles on a very technical topic. I had this great plan that I would divide them among the days of the previous week and I would only have to write 5 on Sunday. Well, I ended up having to write 16. Who would have thought? So I pulled an all nighter and managed to deliver on time, even though I think I was half-dreaming, half-hallucinating during the last two.

I went to bed at 7 o'clock this morning and had to wake up at 13:00 to prepare for the third lesson with the Greek kids. I felt like a brain-dead potato and was about to post this on facebook, because it described quite accurately the way I felt. I felt tired and miserable and as if someone had beaten me up. And I can clearly remember that five years ago it was not an issue at all to sleep 3 hours a night for weeks in a row.

And as I was prepared to hit the "post" button, I got a message from my best friend, telling me that someone we knew had just died on the road. A person at the age of our parents, maybe a bit younger, slightly too old to rock and roll and certainly to young to die. I was numb and didn't know what to think or say. The link of the song was still there on my facebook wall, waiting to be posted. Immediately I realized the vast difference between being dead-tired and just plain dead and the irony of wanting to post this specific song just because I was tired and sleepy. I felt stupid.

***

I have more news and thoughts to write about and share with you, but right now I am just not it the mood, so excuse me.

Teaching children, learning to charge and some random cool things about the 10th of June

 Teaching Greek to children

This week I gave my first Greek lesson to two Dutch-Greek kids. He is 5 to 6 and she is 7, turning 8 soon. They are two smart, adorable kids, with the girl being on the artistic side. She reminds me of myself a bit, as it is clear that telling her a good word or two about her writing and letting her draw keeps her happy and motivated. The little boy is more of a challenge and strangely enough, he does remind me of my brother. My poor brother was starting all new languages when I did, even though he was 2 years younger. And let me tell you, he managed to make a teacher quit!

In a way I feel sorry for the kids today, that their parents overload their schedule so much. But at least those two are lucky because their parents did not want to send them to the Greek school on Saturday, so that they still have the whole weekend to play. I am also trying to teach them through play, but let's face it, you can not trick a kid for long... The boy did not even want to join when we started with the girl but a few animal pictures later and me being over-enthusiastic with what the girl wrote -tah dah!- there he was! His attention span was a bit more than 40 minutes. The girl made it the whole hour, but I could tell that at the end she was really tired.

I believe they did not hate me, because the girl wrote my name in the end of the lesson and as she does not know the letters, it took some effort. And the boy asked if I would stay over so we could play UNO. I have promised to include poems and singing in the next course, next Monday, and see how it goes.


News from my work

 I have realized that I have charged waaaaay too little for my first scientific ghost - writing in the most ridiculous way. I have been working on this project that took much more than expected, because we keep adding paragraphs and ideas and the feedback comes somewhat late, because the clients are busy and also kind of famous (so, busier).

But I gathered my courage and I asked for more money, as the project took longer than expected. I apologized for not expecting it to take that long and I kept my fingers crossed that they would not find the amount too high. Well, guess what. They sent me a mail saying "we actually find it more fair for you to get payed 50% more than what you suggested". Yes. They are THAT nice. And yes, I am that inexperienced and this is why I made a low offer at the first place; because I did not consider my self experienced enough in this field. Well, now I know...

So hopefully this project will be finished this weekend or by the mid of next week. And I would have to start looking for another big project to work on, along with my articles. But now I don't!

There is this great woman living in the US that I collaborate with, and she has been giving me 5 to 10 articles to write per week. She is also a small-scale entrepreneur, so the pay is not great, but she pays immediately and mailing with her is fun. She has also understood when I kindly refused to write articles about hunting, as I am a vegan. And she also respects my other project deadlines.

So today this great gal asked me if I would take up a 56-articles-in-two-weeks challenge. I did and I hope I won't regret it.  I have realized that until I figure out what is a reasonable amount to charge for ghost-writing, it is better to stick to articles, because they pay directly and they end up being more well-paying than books.


News from the wedding planning process

We have reserved the 10th of June as our wedding day.
And all our guests agreed to stay at these great wooden  houses at Delftse Hout.

There has been quite a few paperwork disasters in-between and in order to help others out there I want to share with you the fact that "birth certificate" in English can mean different things for the Dutch and the Greek. Enough said.

Cool things that took place throughout the centuries on June 10th:

In 1962, Briget Bishop got hanged and was the first person that was executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. Having a deep love for all things pagan myself, this drew a wide smile on my face. Briget has been married three times, owned a few taverns, dressed provocatively and was outspoken. Quite a lady, I have to say!

In 1819 Gustave Courbet, French painter, was born. Check out his painting "the origin of the world" (l' origine du monde).

In 1880 André Derain, co-founder of fauvism with Henri Matisse, was born. Click here to immerse your soul in color.

In 323 BC Alexander the Great died. You can go read this and understand why I am not so sad he did not live much longer.

In 1926 Antoni Gaudi died. I love this guy. Click here for a few reasons to visit Barcelona. Some of the most famous of Gaudi's buildings are there. Legend has it that he was walking backwards to be able to see the whole of Sagrada familia, when a tram hit him. Poor Antoni was thought to be a beggar, as he had no ID on him and he was not exactly a huge fan of laundry. So he did not receive immediate medical care. Cruel world we live in.

In 1929, Hélène Smith dies. Too bad, 'cause she was a wonderful French psychic that claimed to communicate with the Martians and that she was a reincarnation of Marie Antoinette and a Hindu princess. Surrealists really liked this gal, because she was all about automatic writing and she was regarded by them as a symbol of surrealist knowledge.

In this episode: Procrastination, biking, Delftse Hout and plans

Procrastination

One of the greater challenges that I have to face as a self employed freelance writer is the fact that I am my own boss. Which means that if I procrastinate on facebook, I am the one who has to scold me. And I am doing it, but it feels quite schizophrenic. It goes a bit like this:

me-boss: You should be researching about the best healing herbs for this article.
me-me: But look at this status update of my high school classmate! She had twins! I wonder how her husband looks... Let me stalk a bit!
me-boss: But you have not seen or talked to her for 10 years.
me-me:Still more interesting than the article.
me-boss: You shall not get payed then.
me-me: Ok, give me 10 more minutes!
...........after 10 minutes..........
me-boss: I guess you started your research?
me-me:....
me-boss: Oh my God! How did you end up on tumblr for Christ sake ?! Is that how you plan to make a living as an independent woman?
me-me: Ok, ok, I am starting...
............after 5 seconds..............
me-me: I am hungry. Me need pasta.
me-boss: No!
me-me: Me need fuel!

You get the point. And on top of that I feel guilty because I disappoint myself. I would not mind procrastination that much, if I was doing something that helped me become a better or happier person while procrastinating. If I read a book, for example. Or if I went for a walk. Or did some yoga, to correct my terrible slouchy posture. But no. All my procrastination goes to the internet. I guess that if I did read a book or did yoga, it would be called a proper brake and not procrastination anyway.

The terrible thing about procrastination is that everyone seems to be doing it. And by "everyone" I mean all freelancers. There is a rumor that this is why we work until the first morning hours (because we started actual work after hitting the panic button at around 9 p.m.). This means that you can find tons of people online to relate to. Which leads to procrastinating by reading articles about procrastination. Sad, isn't it?

Biking

In an attempt to brake this vicious cycle of late night work and all-day-long procrastination, mixed with a few hours of torture-work, I decided to set the alarm clock early today and go for a bike ride. Until yesterday, we had not bothered to find my partner's bike keys after the moving, so he used mine. But yesterday we did the brave move of looking through boxes and baskets and now my bike is mine again.

So today I woke up, had a shower, ate a clementine and a banana, wore green pants and my green coat and a super old blouse with the little price on it and looking like a 5 year-old tree, I rode my bike.

I went to Delfte Hout, a great area with lakes and a camping site just outside Delft. That is how it looks like:

I love this place. Since it was a weekday and I went during working hours, it was really quiet with just a few more bikers and a bunch of vibrant old ladies who walked briskly and chatted. I felt amazing. I was listening to Belle and Sebastian and was trying my balance, stirring the bike with one hand each time. Taking into consideration that I have not biked since I was 8 or 9 and I re-learned this year, I am doing pretty good.

It seems that Spring is slooooowly approaching here as well, since there were already tiny purple and white flowers blooming in several spots. The grass was thick and green and the lake was clear. I could not stop thinking that if I were at home I would be scrolling down status updates of people I do not even like or I would be reading stupid lifestyle articles or about yet one more nail on the coffin of Greek democracy. I felt so angry with myself that it took me that long to brake this circle. But I also felt great that I did, in the end.

Delftse Hout is the place where we are planning to do our wedding reception as well. We have yet to confirm the date and see if the two restaurants there can accommodate our needs. It takes some planning, but it is totally worth it. I am a Summer child and so is my partner and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate our love in nature, under the sun. Of course, the unpredictable Dutch weather is a risk that we will have to take, but what can you do? I am really hoping for good weather, so that we will be able to also swim (even though I am not sure that swimming after alcohol consumption is a good idea. In fact, now that I am writing it, it is a tremendously stupid idea. Sunbathing is still ok though.)


Delfte Hout also has great wooden cabins in its camping facilities and I was thinking that it would be great fun to stay there the night after the wedding. My brother already thinks we are two hippie, vegan freaks, so there is not much at stake in regards to our reputation.

In this episode: We are getting married

There are some times in your life that no matter what you do, feelings take over and paralyze you. There are those times that you might have dreamed of or thought of or fantasized about, but that you never thought would come true. At least not now. Not that fast. Not in such a way.

Long story short, me and my love are getting married in June. I knew we love each other. I knew that we wanted to have a family together. I hoped that this would happen at some point in the future. But then, those new neighbors came, coincidentally doing almost the same jobs as we do and simultaneously being two awesome adults and parents to a baby girl with the most amazing hairdo ever. And the thought crossed our minds. If we love each other and want to be a family, why wait?

So here we are now, planning a civil ceremony and a day in the park with the people we love.

The first two nights I could not sleep. I was so excited about it and so much in awe. I am once again infinitely thankful to skype, for allowing me to spend hours talking with my best friend in Greece until it all sunk in and I was able to get some rest.

Even though we have practically lived together for more than 2.5 years and living in the same house for 2 months now, I know it is going to be a change in our lives. "Forever" can be magical and terrifying at the same time and I firmly believe that ignoring the "terrifying" part instead of addressing it, is what has led many European countries to a 50% divorce rate. A good friend of mine gave us a piece of sound advice a few months ago, when we told him we were planning to live together. He said:

"Marriage is like a black box that has different functions. It makes babies, for example. Some people, when the black box fails to do what they want, just throw it away and get another one. I will try and open the box and see what's wrong inside it. Be the people who open the box."

I loved it. Sounds a bit guru-ish maybe, but it resonates so well with the kind of relationship we have managed to achieve so far. We had many many many (can I stress that enough?) hard times, communication break-downs, misunderstandings and the like the first two years after we met. And the first year that I also moved in the Netherlands had its rough moments too, but mainly because I was so terrified and stressed about living in another country, with a totally different culture, away from my friends.

The point is that he never let me bury my head in the sand like an ostrich and I never let him bury his either. When there was an issue, we addressed it. Yes, it was not always pleasant. And some times it also took a glass of wine or two (or three) for me to find the courage to tell him my worries. And he had to take some alone time and go for a walk or spend time at his place. Still, each and every one of those issues, we have resolved. I am absolutely sure that new ones will come up. After all, with two families becoming one, we would be fools not to expect some turbulence. People need to get to know each other and get used to each other as well.

I saw online a few lists of things you should do before you get married. I am disgusted by some of the proposals. They are basically along the lines of "be stupid and selfish". I found everything, from "date a bad boy" to "buy a very expensive bag, because when you are married he won't let you". Date a bad boy on purpose, just for the experience? What's the point? The bag thing and the husband not letting you, I can't even... The little feminist in me died from an aneurism the minute I read the sentence. And there was the other one "celebrate your 25th birthday before you get married". Well, I get that one, in the sense that you should not go into a marriage without giving it some serious thought, but how the hell do you choose this specific age?

There were more rational lists though. Like "sort your finances", "discuss if you want to have kids" "if you belong to different religions, what religion are the kids going to follow" "discuss your long term housing plans". Rational stuff. Still, common sense stuff. But there are people getting married when they are 19, so I guess this is useful advice.

When we were discussing with my partner in February whether we should get married fast (like, this June) or wait, I made a list of all the reasons I was sure about why I wanted to be with him for life, weather it would be sooner or later. Here are some of the key points:

-Because I love him and I want to be next to him in his good days and bad days and boring days.
-Because I would like my kids to look like him and have his personality (well, and some of my traits as well, thank you!)
-Because we have been through a lot together and I know I can count on him as my best friend as well as my lover.
-Because after 5 years that I know him, he still fascinates me.
-Because I want to do exciting stuff, like travels, with him. And boring stuff, like laundry as well.
-Because when my grandmother got a stroke last year and I was devastated, he asked me if I would like us to pray for her, even though he is an atheist. That one I will never ever forget, no matter what.
-Because he lets me wear his sweaters.
-Because I would give him my last french fry and I love french fries a whole lot. So that must be love.
-Because when I wake up and he is next to me I feel that nothing can go wrong.
-And when I go to bed and he comes to sleep next to me I fall asleep within seconds, knowing that I am secure, protected and loved.
-Because we are a team and we have faced problems as a team before.
-Because if he becomes as a good husband as his father is, then I will be a very lucky woman.

I could go on and on and it would become way cheesier (yes, it can!), but I do need to add one last thing before I stop: this guy bought me this frog these days that I 've got fever, to keep me company. And he makes a sound too!

I feel beyond lucky and beyond grateful for my love and for the wonderful people who are going to be my witnesses. And of course, for our families that taught us how to love and be loved.

P.S.: With the wedding and the fever, my work has suffered. This is going to be a working-like-crazy weekend.
P.S.2: Go watch this TED talk. No science, no boring stuff. I promise. Its all about asking for help, giving, taking and community support.

The Freelance Writers Den and great tips on how to write better.

These past weeks  I have been quite busy with two writing projects as well as with reading blog posts of successful freelancers and trying to figure out how I can one day become one of them. While I was hanging out over at linked-in groups, someone suggested me to join the Freelance Writer's Den. I visited the website, but it did not accept more members at the time. It seemed like some sort of private coaching club and promised to help writers get out of content mills and into real -well payed- writing.

Not being a native speaker and not having a literature background, I knew that for me just chatting with native writers would be beneficial, so I decided to register and wait until there would be a spot for new members. I had nothing to lose anyway.

So today I received a mail that there was a free spot for me and I got quite excited about it. I also had a bit of beginner's luck, because just four hours after my registration a live writing improvement lab with English professor Ben Yagoda started. I did not know who he is before this virtual writing lab, but I sure am happy that I tuned in. 

Ben and Carol gave quite a few useful tips on how to improve your writing both on- and off- line and I have to say that there are quite a few things that I have been doing wrong (and am still doing wrong in this post, because they did not have time to sink it, but I observe them as I write). I will list a few of these tips here, but I do encourage new freelancers to try and join the Den.

Tips from the Ben-Carol lab

-Watch out for word repetition. The more common a word it, the more you can get away with repeating it. But if you are repeating "velociraptor" in a sentence, people are going to notice. And are not going to like it.

-Do not use too many parenthesis. Or double dashes (God, I love double dashes! Oh, and I just used a parenthesis...).

-Be yourself but not too much. A personal style is good, but if your personal style is all about parenthesis, semicolons and dashes, well, restrict your self for the sake of your readers.

-And since I mentioned semicolons, Ben says that very few people know how to use them right, so unless you are sure why you use them, don't. That did hurt my feelings, I have to confess. 

-If you are aware that you abuse a word, then visit wordcounter.com, copy your text in it and let it inform you how far your abuse has gone.

-Read your text out loud, in order to figure out if your sentences are too long. If you need to stop to take a breath before the end of the sentence, it is way too long. Cut it.

-Cut "that" out. We tend to use it as a filler word way too much.

-Prepositions are the weakest part of speech, so if you want to create a strong sentence, keep prepositions to a minimum and do not end the sentence with a preposition.

-It is better to reserve "whom" for very formal texts and use who/ to who in other types of writing. 

-If you are trying to have your own recognizable writing style, avoid cliches as much as possible

-Do not abuse abbreviations and quotation marks

-When the gender is unknown, you can use “they/their” instead of “he/she” or “his/hers”

-Don't use underlining online, because it comes across as a link. Use italics or bold instead.

-When writing online, keep it short. Short phrases, short paragraphs, short texts. The eyes get tired when reading on the screen much faster than when reading on paper.

-Do not punctuate based on sound. This will only lead to commas being totally misplaced.

-Read edited prose in order to absorb some of the above mentioned rules. Keep in mind that most of the times bogs are unedited, so do not have them as your only source of input and inspiration.

-“There are” can usually be omitted, leading to a shorter and more elegant phrase.

-Here you can find britishisms :)

Now, let's see how long it will take me until I started implementing those precious little tips.

How to make a sharpie mug and clean copper jewels

Sharpie Mug

Some times the time for crafting is really limited. Still, there is time for mini projects, like this sharpie mug. All you need to do is find an awesome design (I stole mine from here), buy a cheap mug and draw the design on it with a permanent marker (or sharpie). Then, you put the mug in the oven and bake it for 30 minutes at about 200 Celsius. Once the 30' have passed, you open the oven door slightly and you let the mug cool in the oven. If you take it out immediately, it might crack. The cheaper the mug, the better. A cheap mug means a cheap enamel that will melt fast and absorb the ink, while the mug is hot. Super cool China porcelain stuff is just to good to work on this project. It is supposed to be dishwasher safe, but I do not have one, so I wouldn't know about that.


Cleaning Copper Jewels

The second "how to" has to do with copper jewelery. I wrote a few articles 3 months ago about fashion and style and the like, which really hurt my self esteem. I always thought I had an athletic body, but it seems that I am what people would call a boy-ish figure, or "the ruler" or "the stick". In other words, skinny, no curves. "Athletic" sounded much better. Anyway, apart from that, I also found out that people can find which clothes suit them, based on their skin tone. Here is a sample of one of the articles I read to write my own back then. I found this color analysis thing pretty creepy, but anyway, what I learned is that I am a "Soft Autumn" and that my skin has a yellow undertone, thus I should year jewelery with warm tones in them, meaning gold, copper and leather.

Coincidentally, my partner has given to me as a gift a few months ago a necklace with a small copper tag with three animals etched on it, which I love and wear every day. I do take it off when I shower, but it has become quite blunt over the months, so today I decided to clean it. It turns out that copper shines again if you submerge your jewels in lemon juice/ ketchup/ vinegar and you leave them there for 10 to 20 minutes. Then you can use a toothbrush, to clear them better and wash them with soap. You pat-dry with a towel and they are as good as new!  Just make sure that they are fully submerged, otherwise you will end up with jewels with spots with different tones.

Some Linked-In stuff

On a side note, linked-in proves to be the most valuable networking site, now that I am trying to connect with other writers and freelancers (hi Nena and Sharon :) ). I absolutely encourage anyone out there who wants to work freelance to seek out for such communities, ask for help and give their two cents to the group discussions that are going on.

That's all for tonight :)

A fairy tale and some doodles (or: Saturday Night Creative Fever)

So, the fun duo that we are, we decided to spend yet one more Saturday night crafting (me) and composing music (N.). I had made the cut-outs that you see in the pictures quite a few days before, but we did not want to film the little video without a good camera and music. The camera part got solved with my brother's present and for the music we found some in-between solutions, recording with the lap-top and doing some juggling with midi files (I have no clue about those things, N. did it all).

Did the videos turn out perfect? No way. Do they please us and record efficiently our ideas? Totally. You see, these videos are kind of a sketch book, much more than complete works, and I find it absolutely necessary to take notes, in whatever form, of your ideas. Everything finds its place eventually.

You can see them here and here.

"Shadows" is the story of a girl who loved a boy without a heart (and that is literal, in this case), so she is struggling to find a way to become one with him. There is a witch involved as well as magical potions, transformations and the like.

The "happy days" one has a sense of longing, if you ask me. I mean, you see all those happy colors and the smiling creatures on the planet being created as the video goes on, but somehow -and the music has a lot to do with it- you feel that as fast as they were created, they will be gone. It is more like a memory of happy days. Also, I find the part where the rainbow is drawn very relaxing and I am considering making a video just recording such moves, for purely relaxing purposes.

Highlight of the weekend: there was SUN! And we went for a walk to the central square of Delft, where N. got to ask his favorite street musician what is this waltz he keeps playing. It turned out it was his own compositions. We sat at the foot of the statue, listening to his wonderful accordion music and soaking sun and looking at the rooftops and pigeons for half an hour or so and it was a tiny bit as if we were in Paris.

Valentine's, Ballantine's, great music, great movies and hard negotiations

To be completely honest, there was no Ballantine's in our Valentine's celebrations, but I liked the pun too much not to put it in the title. And anyway, if you do not have a Valentine, at least you can have a Ballantine.

The menu

We did have wine though and a meal that included mushroom soup with shiitake and white mushrooms, roasted sweet potatoes and red skin potatoes, sugar snap peas with an olive oil sauce, rocket salad with cherry tomatoes and my greatest pride of all, the fruit tart pictured above. As I have mentioned before, it is not that easy to stay original when cooking vegan and I did not want to make chocolate truffles, chocolate brownies, chocolate tart or chocolate muffins yet one more time. So what I did was a tart with soy vanilla cream, blueberries, raspberries and almonds, topped with a blueberry syrup caramel. We ate 7 bowls of soup the two of us and more than half of the tart, so I consider the cooking a success.

The music

Yesterday AFP (stands for Amanda F*cking Palmer), released the video for her "Bed Song". I was really excited and full of anticipation until I saw it. Well, I have to admit that I preferred the song without the video. It's not that it is a bad video. It is great and it visualizes the lyrics well. A bit too accurately for my taste though. I prefer my imaginary video. When I first listened to the song I cried because of the deep truth of what it describes. You can read the lyrics here. Luckily, I have examples of love that turned from passion to deep care and tenderness and it just lasted forever. My parents. My grandparents. Friends of my parents. But I also have so many examples of people just drifting apart due to bad communication. And it is yet more cruel when you do love the other person but the wall of silence has become so high that you cannot jump over it anymore.

Anyway, great song. Go listen to it and make sure that it does not end up describing your life.

The second song that we came across was Two of Us, by The Beatles. I am a John fan, my partner is a Paul fan, for the record. Did Paul write it for John? Did he right it for Linda? Well, nobody knows but it is a great song about love and friendship (and a couple more things) anyway. A cover was also in the soundtrack of "I am Sam". Watch this movie. It does have a happy ending but until it gets there, oh man...

The movies

After dinner we chain-watched two movies. The one was Before Sunset. We have watched Before Sunrise a few weeks ago and were amazed, so we thought we should go for this one as well. The Boy has written a great album inspired by Before Sunrise, by the way, so if you are into his music, go listen to it. Do not let the cover scare you away. In these two movies Richard Linklater makes you re-visit your life and gives you a preview of what your future could look like -at least if you are around 30. I watched these two movies for the first time when I was 18 and I found them absolutely uninteresting. Its basically two people walking through beautiful European cities. Whatever.

And then, I watched them almost 10 years later and -bam!- I got it all. It was as if Linklater has been stalking me and my brainwaves and spit out all my thoughts and emotions in one movie in Before Sunrise. And in before Sunset, he summed up all my fears, hopes, thoughts, hesitations and reflections of my life as it is now. Now we are just counting days until 2013.

The second movie we watched was Morvern Callar. I first watched it also when I was 18, but this one really shook my world. I remember going to a video club back in 2003 and not knowing what to pick. And I liked the cover, so I got this one, with the ridiculously translated title "Life, a journey". There is a writer, there is friendship, there is death, there is Velvet Underground. This is the movie that introduced me to Velvet Underground and also this crazy song. Amazing soundtrack and characters and Samantha Morton as Morvern Callar, making all the crazy stuff that I did as a freshman in University seem totally reasonable and justified. 

I remembered this movie because of a post in the website of some friends, were it was discussed how so many great movies have rating under 7 in imdb. No one mentioned Morvern there, but I remembered being shocked when I saw its rating after I had watched the film. People, please do not pay attention to imdb ratings. Watch this movie. Watch whatever movie looks like it could resonate with you somehow.

Also, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton = Major girl crushes.

The day after (negotiations)

Unfortunately, the day after Valentine's did not start that pleasantly as I had to talk with a real estate agent that owes us money as well as the person who kicked us out of an apartment because of our pets. You can read the story here (A rabbit, a hedgehog and a slight change of plans). 
Briefly, we rented a house and the day that we were supposed to sleep there for the first time and the agent came to give us the key, we realized that pets are not allowed, not even non-barking/meowing pets. This led to us giving back the keys and finding a new house a day before New Year's Eve. Still, they did not give us our money back. They said we would get it once they would find a new tenant. 1.5 months later, this has not happened.

Thankfully, we have friends that are informed about the Dutch legislation and pointed us towards legal services and tenant protection committees. So I informed the agent that now "guess what, we know what you do is illegal" and somehow her attitude changed a bit. We really hope that the owner will conform with our suggestions and we won't have to take further steps. 

As crazy as that sounds, I feel that those challenges make us stronger and more capable of dealing with injustices. And with immigration waves becoming more and more apparent in The Netherlands and Germany, I do expect things to become less easy for foreigners, especially considering the fact that unemployment is rising even within the native population. I have seen it happen in my own country and it does not look pretty, I have to say. 

The work

Work-wise, I feel really lucky to be busy with quite a few projects. Small ones, definitely not that well-payed, but some of them quite fulfilling. I designed Mia Simon's new book cover these last days and it turned out pretty neat. I also did a layout where I was allowed -and encouraged, to be honest- to use some Dada typography style bits and that was a lot of fun. Of course the usual content writing that pays the rent took place as well and that might not be so fulfilling, but it is still a pleasant challenge to try and come up with 10 different articles for the same keyword. 

Also, within the next two weeks, a book that I am ghost-writing will finish and after that I am thinking on sticking to smaller projects so that at least during the weekend I can focus on my own writing. We will see if that works out...

An early Valentine's day present

The Love

Today has been a good day and the weekend has been a great weekend.
What you see in the picture above is me blaming one of my 4 best friends in the whole world (that's including my partner) that she killed my productivity with her present.
She bought me this amazing set of rubber stamps, complete in a beautiful tin case, with a tin full of ink as well.

Now I have to stamp the whole Universe. It shall never stop.

What is even greater about it, is why she bought me the gift. Where she comes from, Valentine's day is a day to celebrate all your loved ones, not just your lover. Which I find a great idea. So she came today at our weekly coffee meeting, holding this cute-beyond-words package with a card filled with lovely words that I am going to keep for myself.

After I came back home, I got to skype with another one of the holly trinity of my girlfriends (the two have never met the third one) and amuse her with all the extra costs that came with our new house, such us municipality fees, a fine about misplacing garbage and other not so great ways to spend your money.  Laughing about this sort of stuff with your friends always makes it seem a bit better.

The Fun

Now, about the weekend... We met our neighbors and it was a great surprise when we realized that they are a couple of a PhD student and a freelance translator. What are the chances? They are also non-Dutch, but not Greek either, which is great, because we get to add yet more different cultures to our group of friends. They also have the sweetest baby I have ever seen, but I admit that until a year ago babies were just noise producing machines in my eyes, so I did not pay much attention to them.

So our new neighbors joined our housewarming party vol.2, along with my old housemate, my best friend mentioned above and my old house owner with her husband. We were a group of Finish, Korean, Australian, American, German and Greek people who somehow got along really well. And the house definitely feels warmer now. We started out with a plant-based dinner, that I am quite proud of, because you can only cook that many vegan dinners without repeating yourself. And then we drank a few (or not so few) wines. I believe we went to sleep around four o'clock in the morning, which is something I have not done since ages and quite enjoyed it. Sunday got wasted though.


The Work

Today, I had the chance to make some edits to a book that I am ghost-writing, after a great feedback that I got. I love it when feedback is to the point and does not leave you lost and wondering what you should do. Instead, this client is very positive, appreciates the work that I do and gives clear comments on the changes they feel I should make. From what I hear, I have been very lucky so far, getting clients who are reasonable, leave me creative space and pay on time. I cross my fingers that it will continue to be this way. Not that it has all been ideal, but I have decided not to let minor issue compromise my enthusiasm.

For this week, the plan is to write-write-write, plus design a cover for a book, in which my name gets to show up next to "illustrator:". Not bad. Not bad at all!

About (not) being an expert; about good people; about a shop

This has been quite an interesting day. First of all, I was too busy (and too lazy) to cook, which led into me being kept alive by consuming coffee-dipped cookies. Now, here is an important tip: pick mugs that are at least as wide as your favorite cookies and keep a spoon near-by, because only real experts can enjoy coffee-dipped cookies without ending up with a muddy cookie sludge at the bottom of their mug.

The (not) being an expert part

Secondly, I wrote 5 articles with some relation to interior design for some Asian country (I am ghost-writing, so I shall not reveal more details) and I came across a few articles about why you should not hesitate to write about anything, even though you are not an expert. Here is one of them. They key point is that you do not need to be THE expert in order to do content writing. You just need to be one step ahead than your editor and your readers. And this can be achieved with a bit of conscious googling, for most subjects.

Nutrition, fashion, relationships, tech-trends, music, alternative healing, all sorts of products are just some of the topics that you can write about without holding a degree. I have written a series of articles about foreclosures in Albuquerque and I had no clue where that was. I had to find out though. A few weeks later we watched "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", Albuquerque was mentioned and I realized I knew everything about its real estate market. Funny life.

The good people part

On a side note, I feel like the luckiest sister in the world, because my brother, even though younger, earns enough to be able to afford the equipment that I need for my job and loves me enough to buy me said equipment. So this pic was taken with my brand new Logitech HD 1080p high definition camera that he bought me. As he wrote in his e-mail "Please stop using up the valuable space of cyber-space by uploading videos that you attempted to make by plugging in your laptop potatoes/loafers/etc. Buy a decent camera". And he funded it and he had also already done the research on what I should buy. What can I say, I am grateful.

The "good people" part of the title refers also to the freelancers that I come across online (in LinkedIn and various blogs), that are willing to give valuable advice to a newbie like me. A wise advice that I got today was that, advice is important no matter whom it comes from. You need of course to take into consideration if the person who offers you advice has used it for themselves, but you do not need to start thinking if they have the right degrees/years of experience/ background/age/gender/and what not. Being open and critical at the same time is what matters.

The shop part

In my website, I have an e-shop where I sell my designs. Until I become famous though, it is not that likely that someone is going to google "Has Alexia of "Alexia's Writings and Designs" designed anything that I can buy?" and find my shop. Hence I decided to create a shop over at Storenvy.com. Communities always work best for this sort of stuff. I designed my banner and background image and the like today and I will start uploading stuff really soon.

My job is to keep you posted.

Your job is to stay tuned.

Deer and Hunters

This is our newest video. If you read the description, you might be a bit confused, so let me explain.

The last few days in my homeland, Greece, dark things are happening.
Yesterday we were reading all the announcement on the news, blogs and articles about the publication of the pictures of four suspects of a robbery. Normally, pictures of people who have not been convicted are never published, as a measure to protect their privacy and safety and their families. Additionally, we have never seen in the press the faces of policemen who have been convicted for murders or the faces of neo-nazis who have been convicted for killing legal immigrants in cold blood. 

Two days ago though, the Greek police decided to publish the pictures of four young men, aged 20 to 24, who are accused of the robbery in Velvento (Kozani, Greece). The reasoning was that they are also suspects for being members of a radical/terrorist (according to the police) group that Greek police has been after for a while. The photographs of those men were all manipulated in photoshop in such a way that it was more than apparent that police tried to cover up the severe beat up that they have undergone.

I am copying here the Guardian article: (The public order minister, Nikos Dendias, said that) "the use of Photoshop methods was necessary to ensure the suspects were "recognisable"". What more can we say about the violation of human rights?

Police is trying to justify the beating by claiming that it happened while they were trying to catch the group. There is video footage however that clearly shows that the members of the group were not beaten at the time of their arrest. It seems that it all happened later on and that they were tortured while kept in the police offices. They were not allowed medical examinations, even though they have apparent signs of having been beaten on the head. They were also not allowed to contact their parents for a long period of time.

The young members of the groups believe that they are fighting a just fight against a corrupted government and they see themselves as a revolutionary group and not as a terrorist organization. I am not going to say if their deeds are justified or not, because they have not gone to trial for them yet and they are not convicted.

What struck me though, was that one of the four, N.Romanos, was a very close friend of Alexandros Grigoropoulos,  the 15 year old student who got shot and killed by a police officer in December 2008. Romanos was there that night, with Grigoropoulos. I can not wrap my mind around how I would have felt if police killed an innocent friend of mine with no reason at all. I cannot imagine what I would have turned into, but I am sure it would not be pretty. Does that justify any violent action? No. Does that explain why Romanos became an active member of the anarchist movement and sees himself as a prisoner of war? For me, yes, it does. I clearly remember back in 2008 trying to grasp how the friends of this kid must have felt, how they would grow up, how they would deal with this system that occasionally kills civilians instead of protecting them.

This video we made is dedicated to their friendship. It's all about the dark and tragical and dramatic elements that surround it. It's all about the violence that provokes yet more violence. (The hunter kills the father of the deer. The wolf eats the hunter.). But most of all it is about the infinite sadness of loosing your loved one and having to go on with your life (same way that the doe has to feed the deer).

Laundry (or: sleep is overrated)

The funny thing about creativity is that it strikes when you are at your busiest. There are deadlines ahead of me for three projects, I write the whole day, yet around 9 o'clock at night I get this itchy feeling at the center of my palms and I absolutely need to draw.

And Nikos absolutely needs to write music for what I draw.

And this is how we ended up sleeping at 4:00 in the morning yesterday (which practically means today).

We are absolute amateurs, in the sense that I am just making drafts and trying new techniques and Nikos has no proper recording equipment. However, we are being loyal to the spirit of "Perfection is Dull" and prefer to try many things and see what works best, instead of being perfectionists and never completing something, because it will never be good enough.

Today we woke up quite late, went for a coffee and I bought a few new markers, an x-acto knife and embossing tools. I have never used embossing before, so now I am all about trying it instead of doing the useful stuff that earns the money to buy the pretty stuff.

Friday Night Creative Fever

We live on the busiest party street of Delft (yes, there is such a thing).
While drunk students and teenagers are yelling at each other under our window, we decided to get creative and make a little something.

You can check it out here.

I am currently experimenting with new things and even though it is a very rough draft, I wanted to share and get some feedback. My partner was kind enough to write a great piano piece, inspired by the illustration.

You can also see the scans of the drawings (no photoshop, no filters. Perfection is Dull.)

A pink LP, a blue mood and thoughts on entrapment

Yesterday we received in the mail the double pink LP of one of my favorite bands of all times. I never particularly enjoyed pink as a color, but lots of things change as I grow older. The thing is, this particular pink is not just any pink. It is the pink that the age of 12 would have, if it had a color. The pink of a light blush of the cheeks when a girl smiles at you and you are not even sure why you are blushing.

This particular record and the band that produced it, Kore.Ydro., I have loved for almost 5 years already. I was introduced to them by a significant someone, who had told me that this band reminded him of me. The first time I listened to them I was far from pleased. They sounded to me too melodramatic, too melancholic and too vocal about the misery that goes hand in hand with being in love. My first thought was "well, is that how I come across to others?". Quite displeased, I was. Little did I know that very soon I would not only adore them, but also concur with their lyrics.

Fast forward, 4 and a half years later, yesterday, here I was, sitting at the kitchen table of my home, which is our home, listening to the record and trying -quite unsuccessfully- to withhold  the wave of emotions that was about to drown me. Songs and melodies, not unlike smells, can stir memories that you thought you had dealt with long ago. And then they slap you in the face and make it clear that "IT is still here"; which is wonderful, in the case that this "IT" is a joyous memory; but it quite sucks if it is a sad memory.

To be completely honest, I am not sure which one of the two disturbs me more. I mean, when a happy memory revives, I feel nostalgic and a tiny bit desperate that I am not going to live this thing again. Never the same way. On the other hand, sad memories will make you sad, no matter what. As a matter of fact, now that I write about it, it becomes more clear -it usually does- and I think I just figured it out. I am happier to remember bad moments, because I am relieved that they are a thing of the past. But I am terrified of remembering sublime moments because, well, "sublime" stuff does not take place every day. And certain things can only happen at a certain age.

***

Today another thing arrived at the mail. It was a playpen for Noah, our Holland lop rabbit. Noah is a very active little guy, with a thing for cables. And as he is young and his teeth are razor-sharp, he can kill a laptop charger within seconds, if left unattended. He also likes to chew walls and floors. This has led us to keep him in his cage and we felt really guilty about it. Even though he has the largest cage size for rabbits and he can run around in there and even do binkies, we could not ignore the fact that he could use a bit more space. So we ordered the playpen.

I installed it and he immediately explored around, passed through his grass tube a few times, chewed a paper ball, chewed the blanket that I put as a floor cover, jumped, hopped and the like. And after 15 minutes, he looked at me -I was sitting at my desk, 2 meters away- and he started biting on the wires of the playpen and trying to figure out how to come to me. Loneliness is loneliness and captivity is captivity, no matter how large the cage.

Thankfully, Noah soon realized that I would keep working and he went back to his toys. Unfortunately, I realized that the space he has is more than the space we have in our house, taking into account the scale difference. And I wondered how the hell do we manage ?! I mean, virtual worlds surely help to get your mind away a bit, but it starts becoming the only option to explore the world. Sure, traveling helps and we do that as much as we can. And taking walks helps too. But at this moment, the whole city feels to me like the playpen feels for Noah (I assume). Its better than staying in the cage the whole day, but its still a sad and mediocre compromise.

So what would I like to do, you ask. I surely cannot imagine that it would be possible to roam freely in the fields wearing nothing by my hair, right? It's winter after all. I would freeze. Well, what I dream of right now would be to have zero obligations that tie me at one specific place and be able to just live all over Europe. Travel, write my articles in cafes and cheap motels and all the cliches that go hand-in-hand with a proper case of Wanderlust. And as if that is not improbable enough to happen, I would like my partner to be able to join me. 

I guess that it is normal for people to get this sort of need to escape when they realize for the first time how much of their effort and their income goes into things like rent and bills, that are not enjoyable at all, but necessary.  Ok, maybe the rent of one month would only sustain us for half a month in a hostel in Paris, but then we could live for two months in a Balkan country, that would be cheaper. It is highly likely though, that if we pursued this way of life, within 6 months I would crave a stable home to go back to. We shall never know.

***

I realized the other day that most of the people that I follow in different social media are teenagers; or from Australia; or belong to the LGBT community; or they are unemployed hippies surviving by doing woofing. Some times, they are a combination of the above. This causes me similar emotions with the happy memories: I feel really inspired and happy by the passion of these people and the intensity with which they fight for their dreams. And then I feel jealous that I am not living their lives and I never will, because they are mostly 10 years younger than me and back then I was too busy being a good student. That is not to say that I did not enjoy my years at the University, but now I see how many more things I could do, instead of drinking, dancing, writing and pulling all-nighters for the design studios. And even though I realize that "this is what everyone did there and then. How could you know?", my insatiable appetite for life makes me crave all the youths I did not live. 

I guess this is the definition of greed.

Stories From Freelandia

This blog will be used as an addition to my website.
I have started recording my life as a freelancer in "Stories from Freelandia", without any expectations that many people would visit the tab.

Thankfully, many friends and supporters have read the first pages of my adventures, so I felt I owe them a space where they would also have the freedom to comment and interact with each other and myself.

So, welcome to Freelandia!