With or Without Diaeresis?

I've got allot of emails in my student mailbox which, even though I've read them, are marked as "unread". One of those is a mail of Mr. Hans Coppens in which he asks us to search ourselves via Google and to tell him in a blog post what we think of the results. This is done best in a private window or logged out from every possible website, if not you'll get pretty biased results. I decided to open a private window, because I'm logged in into way too many - I'm talking about possible dozens - websites. Then there was only one question to be answered: Should I give the "i" in my last name a diaeresis or not? I realized that I didn't use one on some website because it wasn't possible to have one. An example of this is the Japanology lab, where I use "Nesrine Naimane" as my username, without the diaeresis on the "i", so I searched myself with and without diaeresis.

Google found 17,800 results in 0.74 seconds (pretty impressive, huh?) concerning "Nesrine Naimane", but only four or five actually matter. The first link is to my Twitter account, NSFrenchFries, where you can read, like and retweet my - for now - 7.059 tweets. On my Twitter account my birthday, 668 pictures and videos, which are often linked to my YouTube channel, and a link to this blog can be found. With this information you'll easily know a bit more about Nesrine Naimane without diaeresis. Link nr. 2 is to a post from the Sint-Joseph Institute, my secondary school, about the "Groot Bokrijks Dictee" (Eng. Grand Bokrijk Dictation, can be compared with a written spelling bee), which is held annually with obligatory participation. I won with solely five flaws, but I remember that some other co-winners and I weren't quite allowed to be proud of it. The former directrix thought that because of our ethnicity we had to study harder to learn the Dutch spelling and that's the reason why we scored excellently on the "Groot Bokrijks Dictee". I still don't know whether this was supposed to be a compliment or the opposite of one. You can read more about my secondary school on LinkedIn, where I'm on the second place (what? No gold?) of the list of top twelve - top eleven according the Google link - profiles for Naimane, right under the Canadian Naima Naimane of which I don't know if she's family.  I must admit that I'm not really proud of the last result because it's proof of a 9-year-old me who wants to tell everybody the following: "i like chiro!!!!!" (yes, with five exclamation marks and chiro, is something like scouting).

Google found a lot less results for "Nesrine Naïmane": 660 results in 0,51 seconds (quite illogical, isn't it). This results are spread over thirteen pages (or O's), of which eight are spent to Style Saint Society, a social media site with fashion as its focus. When I just started blogging I received an invitation to try this site out, but I didn't use it anymore afterwards. The remaining three pages concern nine other results, but two of them are dead links. That's because I deleted those two accounts, Pinterest and Chictopia, since I didn't use them anymore and didn't know why I should keep them around. Yet again Twitter stands at the top of the results page, followed by Google+ which I only have an account on because I use YouTube, which is a result as well, and Gmail (like many other Google+ users). The third result is Facebook, but again this isn't a real result since the link leads to a page saying there aren't any users with the name Nesrine Naïmane. This - apparently inexistent on Facebook - Nesrine Naïmane is also very active on the wiki of Japanese History, where she's done some WikiGardening (time to go back to first person singular, because this is getting creepy). The digital place where I'm active most is Instagram where I post daily or try to. Almost every picture in the image results for Nesrine Naïmane is on Instagram.

Luckily we've got the freedom to post whatever we want on the internet, and I like to use that freedom. But sometimes you've gotta think at least twice before you post something, because some things we'll be on there forever (see: "i like the chiro!!!!!"). Even though I wanted to take that statement down a couple of years ago, I'd rather have it not removed because I'm not ashamed anymore for the 9-yearold me. I know you can hide some results from Google, but this doesn't mean they'll be deleted. You know, a stitch in time saves nine.

Going Gingham

Re-examinations, re-examinations... My hate for this word is growing with every exam I finish. You would think it'd be the other way around, but unfortunately it isn't. Waking up early and being tired when eating lunch. That was pretty much this week's recipe for one very tired and unproductive blogger (I'm feeling so sorry for that).

Even though traveling by train, which is why I had to wake up (very!) early, has made me lose lots of time, I did spend my time well. Besides trying not to fall asleep when reviewing my notes in the morning, I've spent most of my rides back home with trying to draw something. And this is what you'll find pretty weird, but I wished those rides took some more time. Apparently - and I'm not kidding- my drawing skills are better when using public transportation.

Unfortunately I didn't get to finish any of those drawings because I only get to focus like half an hour on my drawing. Well, I do get to sit on the train for an hour and fifteen minutes, but when 45 minutes have passed I realize I brought my sketch book with me. And that's one of the reasons why I never finish a drawing. Another reason is my fear of screwing it up and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Sometimes (read: every single time) when I draw something that looks good I think: Let's just keep it that way before, you know, making a mess out of it. This pretty much reminds me of Charlie Brown and Lisa Simpson... Perhaps I'm just like them but I just might not know it yet. 

I don't know if there are more people who do this, but before I start drawing I usually draw some lines. This is some kind of "warming-up" for my pencil. It's a way to make sure my lines won't be harsh or sharp when I start with the real deal - a cool kid'd say: "Really-o-deally-o." But I'm not cool so I'll just keep it with "real deal". Most of the time I tend to draw a gingham-like pattern and that's pretty much when I realized that this minimalist pattern is pretty interesting.

According to me this pattern is a pure classic which is why I just can't dislike it. Although it might be a classic, there are people who arent quite fond of it. My brother for example, I'm guessing he might, even though he's a fan of black gingham, associate it with a picnic cloth but he might not be the only one (I'm not a fan of red gingham; reminds me of the countryside).

And I've gotta be honest, pink gingham is to die for. If I'd find myself a bodysuit like the one underneath, I'm gonna buy it immediately! No kidding! This is yet again me giving in to the temptations of wearing girly stuff. Let's just hope this thing I've got with pink is just an affair and not some long term relationship. I know there might be some people thinking the same, and I'm guessing there are also some of you hoping for the opposite to happen (more pink?). Even though I might be firing with pink for a moment, but my heart will always belong to black.

Thank you, and take care.

June All Over Again

It's has been August for 10 days already and I've spent half of them studying for my reexaminations (it pretty much sucks). Even though I don't really like the act of studying, but I do like learning (yes, there's a difference between learning and studying) something new. And of course I like to do it in a fun way. This basically means using lots of colors - mainly pink because it's the only marker that works properly - in my summary, using Japanese words when I actually shouldn't and adding some doodles. Well, I actually use those doodles when I don't feel like writing anymore and they usually end up in the trash when I've rewritten - keeping it neat - my summary on my laptop. And rewriting it on my laptop makes it easier to share with others, remember: "Sharing is caring" (I use this when my baby sister won't share her Barbies with me).

Another "study-habit" I've got is listening to music while studying. I know lots of you think it's the worst idea in the world, but it keeps me focused. Besides when you listen to music you won't have to deal with the noise around you (why do my neighbors have a dog?). To the ones who don't have to deal with barking dogs and lawn-mowing seniors: You, my friend, are one lucky potato. 

Something I'd like to share - sharing is caring - with you, my potato-friend, is a little playlist containing my most played songs of the moment. Even though it says "of the moment", it doesn't mean "music of now". I don't quite know how to put this right, but let's just say that there might be lots of songs people of our age - about 18 - won't know. But if you're about 18 and you do know these songs, then maybe you and I should become best friends or something (I'm just saying). So, I called this playlist "M A D o n n a" and I don't know why as I tweeted earlier. Maybe I'll know why I named it like that in the morning... Sometimes it just takes me a while why I give stuff their names.

Making this playlist on @YouTube and idk why I called it M A D o n n a 💿 #DontAsk

— Nesrine Naïmane (@NSFrenchFries) August 10, 2014

So yeah, here's the playlist that keeps me focused while I doodle, write in pastels (you know, the BIC 4 Colours Fashion), mark with the only marker I own - don't wanna buy a new one because it's unnecessary - and rewrite to share it with the ones who also think that sharing is caring.

Thank you, and take care.