I loved the first season of Game of Thrones, so obviously I’m excited for season 2! I finished the fifth book just before Christmas, and I’m so curious to how this series will end. It’s weird though that I’ll have to wait at least 4 years (most probably more) to see those words translated to the small screen. Assuming, that is, it won’t be cancelled at a certain moment.

The new trailer got released this weekend, and it’s looking great! There are a couple of casting choices that I’m not too sure about, but this trailer doesn’t really show those yet:

One thing I love about being a blogger is that I’ll occasionally be emailed something I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. Like today.

Next week Thursday (2nd of February) there will be a one-night performance of Festival of the Spoken Nerd. Why have I not heard of these guys before? Their show sounds like something right up my alley!

Here’s the description:

Stand-up mathematician Matt Parker, geek songstress Helen Arney, and Blue Peter’s resident science expert Steve Mould bring you Festival of the Spoken Nerd – a comedy night for the insatiably sci-curious.

After a year of sold-out shows in London and at science festivals across the UK, Matt, Helen and Steve are taking over the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Join three of the London’s best (and nerdiest) performers for a night of comedy, science, maths, geeky songs, special guests, interactive experiments, maybe some things that go bang…

What: Festival of the Spoken Nerd
When: February 2nd 19:30
Where: Theatre Royal Haymarket
Tickets: £12 (buy here)

I’ll definitely be going next week, but I’ve also got two tickets to giveaway to one lucky reader! All you’ve got to do is leave a comment behind with who your favourite scientist is and why.

You’ll also get a second entry if you’re following me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway with the hashtag #missgeeky. The competition ends on January 30th after which I’ll randomly draw a winner. Of course, you’ll have to be based in London (or willing to travel to London) and be available on February 2nd.

One of the things that I didn’t really realize when moving to another country was that you have to rebuild your entire mental database of stores. Back in the Netherlands, I knew exactly which places would cater to my style, size, price range etc, and which places I should just avoid. Then I moved here to the UK… There were some stores that were the same, but mostly they’re just completely different. So in the past few years, I’ve been slowly figuring out which places I should shop at.

One of the places I still hadn’t ever really tried was Next. It’s just one of those stores that never grabbed my eye when walking past it. So when I got the chance to review a dress from the Next online store, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try it out. I found a cool looking dress, ordered it in size 10 and within 2 days it arrived. Tried it on… and it didn’t fit. Damn. I’m not a size 10 with them, I guess.

I was about to leave for Christmas a couple days later, so decided it would be easier to actually go to a store and exchange it there. Sadly they didn’t have the dress I ordered in a smaller size, so I needed to find another dress. And that’s when I realized why I had never shopped at Next before: I tried on about 20 dresses until I finally found one that fit. Almost every single dress didn’t fit my hips properly or was too long on me, just not suiting my body type at all.

I eventually did find something that fitted me though: a nice slightly business-y looking dress. What do you think?

I have to say though that a lot of the dresses I tried on I wish had fit on me. I know I have short legs (compared to my upper body), so I’m guessing if you’ve got long legs, the dresses would suit you fine. The interesting thing though is I’ve read other bloggers complain about other stores like New Look and Dorothy Perkins that their dresses are way too short, but I’ve never had a problem with them. I’m guessing it really depends on your body type, which stores will suit you best.

So anybody else “discovered” this? Which stores work best for you?

This Sunday, the 15th of January 2012, it will be five years ago that I moved to London. It will be five years ago that I showed up here with only a single suitcase to start a one year student exchange at Imperial. It will be five years ago that I was that shy, scared girl that I remember I was.

My plan was to finish my masters that year, and then to most probably go back to the Netherlands and find a job there. I remember wondering at the time about the 2012 Olympics and thinking that by then I wouldn’t be living in London anymore. Somehow I got a bit distracted along the way. What was supposed to take only a year, took me 4.5… oops. I never thought I would become the perpetual student.

I don’t regret it though. Within these 5 years I’ve done stuff, I never thought I would do. I started this blog, which has led to so many cool experiences, giving me the chance to meet awesome people and to cover awesome events. I attended GeekDinners, BarCamps and HackDays, learning to present, to code, to not be afraid to talk to people I don’t know. And then I also started organizing those events, allowing me to give something back to the community who had taught me so much.

They say that with every choice you have to make, the universe diverges and creates the realities of both choices. And sometimes I can’t help but wonder: what if? What if I had finished my degree within that first year? What if I got a job after that first year? Or had moved back to the Netherlands? Would I still have gone to GeekDinners, BarCamps and HackDays? Would I have met the same awesome people? Would I have done all those things that I never thought I would do? Would I be the person I am today?

I don’t think I would be. Part of me regrets not having finished my degree sooner, but I don’t regret all the things I’ve done and learnt instead. I don’t regret the wonderful people I’ve met and the amazing friends I’ve made.

This Sunday, the 15th of January 2012, it will be five years ago that I started the beginning of the end of my student life.

This Sunday, the 15th of January 2012, will be the last day of my student life.

This Monday, the 16th of January 2012, I will be working at EmberAds. Working with some of those awesome people I mentioned: Baz, Caius, Cristiano and Dom.

Part of me is scared, most of me is really excited. One thing I know though:

It’s going to be fracking awesome.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year’s Eve. I went pretty much gadgetless for most of the past week, giving myself a much needed offline break. I will be trying to post more in this new year, but I don’t think it will ever be as much as I formerly used to write.

This year I wanted to start off the year with some 2011 retrospectives. I never got around to reviewing each of the books I read the past year, but I thought the least I could do was make a list of everything I read. This year I managed 39 books, which on average means I read 0.75 book per week (or 1 book per 1.3 weeks). Not too bad, if I say so myself. Let’s see if I can aim for more than 40 next year!

Highlights for me this year were The Hunger Games trilogy (well, actually only the first book, the rest I found a bit disappointing), Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series (Rosemary and Rue is the first one, if you’re interested) and George R. R. Martin’s A Dance of Dragons. So what books did you read this year? What were your favourites?

Read In 2011

Melinda Seckington’s favorite books »

Wow, the last couple of weeks have been so super busy, I’ve again managed to neglect this blog. Sometime soon though I should have something exciting to share with you all…

Anyway it’s the day before Christmas and I need to catch up on Christmas posts! This awesome song from Tim Minchin has been doing the rounds the past two days (it was sadly cut from tonight’s Jonathan Ross show):

It’s almost Christmas time and to get this blog in the proper Christmas spirit, I’m holding a giveaway! You’ll have the chance to win one of two $10 Threadless vouchers, just read the details below the image.

To enter the giveaway:

I’ve got 2 vouchers to giveaway, so you’ll have 2 chances of winning:

1. One winner will be randomly selected from all the comments below.
2. A second winner will be picked by me for the funniest, most original story.

The closing date for the giveaway will be Friday December the 16th at 14:00 and is open to anyone.

It’s been a while since I last wrote about them, but I love knomo’s laptop bags. They’re the perfect combination of pwetty and practical. And this week they’ll have another sample sale! Squeee!

The sample sale is this Thursday and Friday at the London knomo office. Here are the full details:

Date: Thursday 15th December, and Friday 16th December
Time: 11am – 7pm
Address: 83 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 7LS

I’ve been to two of their sample sales in the past and each time I’ve ended up buying a shiny new laptop bag for only £50. Both of those laptop bags were unique pieces and I’m so glad I got them! And even though I have two already, I am very tempted to get another if something interesting catches my eye… I’m hoping they might have a Silvi, cause I need a bag like that for my laptop! Fingers crossed…

A couple of months ago I got asked whether I’d be interested in “contributing” to an article in The Times about different trends/tribes, with one of the trends being “girl geeks”. After waiting for weeks, that article is now finally live! It was in last weekend’s Saturday Review and was also online on the Times site (it was briefly accessible for some people, but it’s now disappeared behind their paywall).

It’s interesting to see which bits of the interview they ended up using. I think I talked with them for half an hour about all the different events I go to and organize, and it’s weird seeing a very condensed version of what we talked about. I’m also pretty sure that last sentence is not an exact quote from me; I said something along those lines, but I know I did not use the word “entrepreneur” (you know how most people will have a couple of words that they always struggle with and can’t pronounce? “entrepreneur” is one of my words, whenever I attempt to use it, it comes out more like “en-en-en-en-…” ).

And then there’s that photo… I think I look a bit awkward in it, but then I had no idea how to pose with the iPad (if this was my best one, I dread to see the photos that they rejected). I wish I had bought actual props with me, instead of just a geeky t-shirt (which you can’t even see!) and an iPad. I’m still wondering what I should have bought along; what do you think would have worked?

How have I not seen this video before?!? David Tennant remains my favourite Doctor.