People really shouldn't clap after movies.

It just doesn't make sense to me. Why clap? Who are you clapping to? The director? He's not in the room so no. Plus, if he was you wouldn't be in jeans and there'd be a pretty high chance the clapping was directed at a movie you had an acting part in. 

Now for the first time in my life I didn't feel that way. I just came back home from a family movies night out. We went to go see The Help. This movie was absolutely amazing. There's a perfect balance of seriousness and humor and at the end I was delighted to find people were clapping when the credits started rolling - the opposite of my usual reaction to cinema-clappers.

The 146 minute movie tells the story of an ambitious writer in a small southern town in the 1960s. Unlike everybody else she wants to get the other side of the story: The side of the African-American maids. To get this story published in a novel she needs the help, the African-American maids, to help her.

Although most of the plot events made me rather embarrassed of the humans alive on this planet before I was, it also truly made me realize one person does have the power to make a difference. I have no idea what exactly, but the two hours in that cinema just did something to me. It's a strange feeling. One I haven't experienced very often, if ever, before in my life.

Two last things before I make my way to my bed:
1. Emma Stone is deserves a place in my top three favorite actresses and 2. Someday I will say: "Get your raggedy ass of my porch!" - Just because it sounds so 1960s badass.

Entire days of studying without any actual, well, studying.

We've all been there - a mountain of work is to be done and exactly when we most need it there is absolutely zero motivation to do anything productive. (That would be right about now, who the fuck thought it was a good idea to have exams after 2 and a half weeks of vacation? Not me, my friend, not me.)

As a (very surprising -.-) result of my utter lack of motivation, procrastinating is something I have come to master over the last couple months. Actually, this very blog is a product of my procrastination. Now I always tell myself I'm a glass-is-half-full kinda person and I'm about to prove that in...

A LIST OF THINGS I HAVE DONE WHILE I WAS NOT STUDYING, AND I DO NOT REGRET DOING:

1. Making this blog because I miss sharing random details of my life with people who (I like to think but, come to think of it, really probably don't) care.
2. Having the funniest conversations on Facebook because my friends and I are like s0 funny. Bahaha, she's gunna hate me for this but if you send emails like that, you can really only expect things like this to happen:

The second blackout out name is this really random theater teacher WHO EVELIEN HASN'T EVEN EVER HAD AS A TEACHER and, although supah weird, she probably wouldn't actually would wrap students in sushi and roll them down the stairs for being too loud.

3. Sending Alice something very closely resembling a play-by-play of my life BECAUSE MY BEST FRIEND HERE IS IN MALAYSIA AND I HAVEN'T SEEN HER FOR A GOOD THREE WEEKS, I CELEBRATED NEW YEAR'S WITHOUT HER AND she just loves me so much she wouldn't not wanna know everything.
(Imagine a ridiculously detailed report of my day here. (Reason for it not actually being there: That, would be embarrassing - If you want a laugh just look at Evelien's dream again.. Lolz))
4. Eating lots of food and skipping normal meals because this concept is g e n i u s. Skip normal meals and the moment everyone is out of the house stuff yourself with cookies, desserts, chips and, uhm, anything edible really, while spilling crumbs and stuff everywhere, naturally. Watching my weight is so last year. Loljk as if, watching my weight has never happened, food = too good.

That's about it. Also, don't mention the fact my on-going list of why studying would've been smarter is probably a lot longer than this one. Just don't.

M HKA's most noteworthy features: THE GIFTSHOP

Noooo, MHKA does not stand for any of these things, (I'm not really really not a fan of purebred dog shows... Or any dog show. Dogs in general, to be honest, but that's a different story.) Instead it's the Museum Hedendaagse  Kunst in Antwerpen. That probably says even less to you than the Mid-Hudson Kennel Association but I'm about to change that. The collection I saw was 'A Rua', and it supposedly portrayed Rio de Janeiro. Well, that used to seem like a pretty interesting place to go but after that 'art' collection I think I've seen enough.

The place I wouldn't mind visiting...

So, on one of our many, lovely (..tell me sarcasm works over the internet) family outings we went to this museum in the not-so-heart of Antwerp, Belgium, just a couple days ago. From the outside, all I could bring myself to think was where the fuck did he take us this time. (Think along the lines of a deserted, flooded (and as a result of that muddy) street in the pouring rain with one window-less building and nobody to be seen.) And when we walked in, that feeling really didn't disappear. Usually museums, especially contemporary art ones (Hedendaagse = Contemporary, Kunst = art... Welcome to the Dutch lingo) are places I really enjoy visiting but then again, usually they're not in the middle of nowhere, not completely empty until you get to the fourth floor, and not mainly photographs of violence and videos with waaay too much blood for my liking. (Massaker! an 11-minute movie made in 1997, all the way on the top floor in its own separate room.. The name says it all.)

Needless to say, overall this was not a success. There was one reason I'm happy I went though: The giftshop. Now I've had some pretty random collections over the years. Name, for example, my 350+ cork collection (which my mother 'lost' during one of our moves). In the giftshop they had the coolest, most original set of postcards I've ever seen and so another collection of mine has officially been born: My postcard collection - So far my favorites are:

Clean A4 (2005) - Anu Tuominen 

Tableau de chasse 1 (2001) - Pascal Bernier

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that, until there is a new collection which opens or something, do not bother going to the M HKA - unless you're desperately looking for some original postcards.

What's the funniest/cutest/prettiest/yougettheidea postcard YOU ever saw? Leave a comment! 

Hello all.

I'm Malou. And you can look at the little tab-thing to find out more. I changed the name like 489753 times but Evelien came up with LAWLLERSKATES and she wants all the credit as you can see:

THIS is a screenshot from facebook chat. I PROMISE you if you stick around  (which you will?) that you'll see more of these.

.. (There you go, bahhaha)

The name really has of just about 0 meaning apart from, you know, the relation to the background picture of me, yes me, in a basket wearing rollerskates and the fact that I laugh, a lot.

Now I'm not entirely sure what all this will be, but I'm pretty much planning on taking you through my teenage life and all of its ups and downs - not only through writing but also through photographs, little obsessions, and just random tidbits in all kinds of shapes and forms.

UPDATE: Hey Evelien, I'm not LAWLLERSKATES anymore but that's okay. :)