Just came back from the Sneak Preview where I saw Matchstick Men, which was quite enjoyable thanks to Nicholas Cage mainly. I'll give it a 7 out of 10. One of the rare occasions where a film turns out better than you think it would be. A little bit overdone at times, a little bit drawn out at others but other than that much more enjoyable than Seabiscuit.

But what I really want to see is the film they showed previews of. Love, actually I think it was called. And I think it featured every actor there is. And Colin Firth. He's wearing a turtleneck sweater. Alan Rickman, too. But I guess he's included in "every actor". Did I mention Colin Firth wearing that adorable turtleneck sweater? Hugh Grant, of course. Liam Neeson. I think I caught a glimpse of Heike Makatsch. I remember her giving an interview about working with Hugh Grant. They didn't mention Colin Firth. Nor did they mention the turtleneck. OK, I'll shut up now.

Ohmigod, what's in the water? I mean Ms Riefenstahl and Mr Cash, OK. They were rather old. But now I find out that John Ritter has died, too. And he was only 54.

Johnny Cash is dead, too.

Watch Hurt in memoriam.

I finished it again. Now I just need to proofread it once and then off to my tutor again. Sigh. This is basically a "I am waiting for lots of pages to be printed" blog entry.

What else? On monday I do battle with the secretary. On the weekend I guess I can relax (insofar as possible). Sort of. Need to run 36 km and need to visit my grandma in the hospital. I think I am going today, too (my parents are out of town and she needs company).

Oh, and let's not forget preparations for the exam which hopefully will follow in October. Maybe I should wait until Monday, because if the secretary balks the exam won't be an issue anymore. Then again, it never hurts to be prepared.

Badgers. Badgers. Badgers. MUSHROOM MUSHROOM!

Today was my last day at the Astro Show. No more astrologic predictions for me. I was assessed as having pisces in da house today. Well, apart from my roommate, there's no pisces anywhere in my house. I am a taurus with ascendent leo, thankyouverymuch. (I'll refrain from cracking the old joke that there might be pisces in Uranus). Anyway. Over and done with. At least I am supposed to have a superb September. Hello, September?? I am waiting. But September is still young and might have something in store for me.

Up to now it's been like pretty much every month. Turning points in store:

For the worse: the 15^th, when they might reject my paper

For the better: the 24^th, when I am allowed to turn it in.

After that, everything's just fine and dandy. No, not really, but I figure none of that has anything to do with what I do. After all: "BUT IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER." (Sometimes it's really trying to stick to that motto, but what can I do. Nothing. That's what.)

The motto thing reminds me that today when running I kept my fruit bar (I had only bought one energy bar which was stolen!!) close to my body at all times and it turned out to be really good. If you're interested, look here. The "Fitness Bar" is the one that got stolen, so I have no idea how that tastes, but the "Fruit Bar" (somewhere at the bottom) was one of the best bars I have eaten so far (and I've tried quite a lot). But you're probably not interested. Yes, my life IS boring :)

Still haven't figured out what to do with the huge box the cat scratching tree came in. I am really looking forward to the day I am finishing the paper because that's the day I'm planning to finally clean up my room. Cookie Cat has got a runny nose. I hope that's normal. Otherwise she seems OK. I am calling her Miss Wet Nose as she keeps sticking it into my face. Yep, boooring.

The Homepage of God

An Idiot Girl Votes

I need to vote - I have everything right here, since I'm registered at my parents' (and my ex) hometown and am voting by letter. But I have no idea who to vote for. No problem, I thought. After all, this is the information age. I'll look on the net. But alas! FFB doesn't seem to have entered the information age yet. Nothing really about the candidates or anything. Sigh. I guess it'll be a blind vote then. Green, I guess, as they have the same chance of winning as Marilyn Manson if he becomes a candidate to be the next Pope. Il Papa Marilyn. Then I won't mess anything up and at the same time satisfied my inner rebel against black encrusted structures in the FFB government. OK. Let's check out their webpage. Oy! It seems I was wrong. Most likely Green candidate to be voted in the Landtag. My, my.

So let's start. I open up the large envelope. Piles of paper fall out - what's all this? They're huge and threatening. No problem, I picked my choice of politician. A glance at my ballot paper, however, tells me I can't vote for Most Likely Candidate. I can vote for someone named Sepp who is a Biobauer. Not sure if I want to do that. At least the SPD candidate is a woman, and I tend to just vote for women no matter what. I am sexist in that way. Consider, consider, consider. Check box. (Secretly and personally.)

But why can't I vote for the Most Likely Candidate? Oh, OK. There's a Stimmkreis and a Wahlkreis. Ack! Now I'm totally confused. Apparently I have a vote each. The ballot paper for the Wahlkreis rivals the wrapping paper used by Christo to wrap the Reichstag. In size, I mean. Oh, I see I can vote for the person I read an article in the SZ about. Influenced by the media, that's me. No own political opinion. A victim of propaganda. If they'd sell candidates at the cash register in the super market, I'd own plenty. Checked.

Now there's the same in blue. What's this? Oh, it's the Bezirkstag. (Whatever that might be. Total blissful political ignorance, that's me.) Somebody on here states his job as "Portfoliomanager". Huh?? I'm not voting for people without a proper occupation, that's for sure. Check.

This time I'm prepared. *unfolds huge blue life-size paper* Should I vote for the Fundamentalist Christian Party to shake things up a bit? Nah. Out of solidarity with my friends I select a Free Journalist. Which reminds me of something and I unfold the white moloch again. Yep, the stupid girl that used to be studying with me is also a candidate again. Decide to check out her website. Whoa. Who does that design? Apparently she's in a Beagle Club. Haven't seen her around at University - the ballot paper gives her occupation as "student" though. Oh, well, not going to vote for her anyway. Boy, was she dumb. And that's coming from somebody who can't even read ballot papers properly.

What's next? Volksentscheid. Am I for or against the Konnexitätsprinzip. Hmmm. Research tells me: "He who orders, must pay for it." Sounds reasonable. I discuss with Jule, the resident political expert. She agrees. The other Volksentscheid deals with protecting children from abuse. Also sounds like a good idea. Checked and checked.

Now I just need to seal everything. I look at the instructions for putting the ballot papers in the right envelopes. Yikes! Seems you need to be at least a doctor to understand it. But if the ballot papers aren't in the right envelopes my vote's not valid! (It says here in red letters). Oh, OK. For people like me they did the colours. Thank you. White to white, blue to blue, yellow to yellow. Ahem. Suddenly it seems easy.

There we go. Just one envelope left over to be posted as soon as I decide to leave the house and presto! I am a politically active person.

Thank you, thank you, thank you *bows*

Exeunt

Oh, and lest I forget. Put those dates into your calendar:

• Gilmore Girls: Season Premiere 23^rd of September
  
• Scrubs: Season Premiere 25^th of September
  

*does a little dance of TV goodness*

My grey mood actually lifted somewhat when I went shopping. No, not because I got to spend money, I only went grocery shopping. But when I passed the restaurand at the corner it smelled like Bratwurst. And somewhat like roast almonds. Mix that up and voila! your brain immediately adds Glühwein. Christmas markets. I like Christmas markets. And so my mood improved and I was starting to look forward to it being winter. Not the fall part in between, I still don't like fall too much (if it's not Indian Summer, I like Indian Summer. Provisions, provisions, ifs and buts, that's me). Actually, it needs to be cold and snowy for me to enjoy winter, so there's also conditions to that. But since I'm only imagining at the moment I might as well imagine snow. Soon I'll start yammering about the Perfect Christmas^TM. No, I remember well I did that last year, you can read about it in the archives, if you really care or ask me in person, I've got it all figured out. For years. Like a yiddish mama planning her daughter's wedding, I'm planning the Perfect Christmas. (Seen too many episodes of The Nanny, I guess.)

Well, before I can even start thinking about Christmases, I'm trying to decide if I'm looking forward to go to the Oktoberfest. At the moment I am leaning heavily towards the negatory. But we'll see about that in two weeks. Two? I guess so.

I think it's strange when something is made out to be a childrens' book, but really isn't. Just now finished Ender's Game which was really good. It's the first of a series, but I've heard the rest aren't as good. (While I was at it I ordered the second one as well, so I guess I can tell you about that some other time). I had never heard about it, but apparently it's a classic (well, sort of). Reminded me of Player of Games. Maybe it was the subject... Player of Games had a more "adult" setting, but I remember the sex subplot getting on my nerves, it was so ostentatious (if that's the right word for it, can't describe properly what I mean - it was like Mr Banks hadn't been getting laid for ages and needed to compensate by writing).

Ender's Game, on the other hand, was quite sad. Melancholic, more. Matches the weather today (and my mood which is somewhat grey, don't know why exactly). I recommend it. The book, not my mood.

Now back to work.

If you love a book, set it free.

Well, I don't quite know what it does, but you can Join Here.

I'm back! Yes, the weekend was really busy. Fun, too, though.

First, I went to a party of the Riddle Scene^TM. And (drumroll) I met the Grand Master of Riddles ... who was a rather strange character (well who'd have thunk) and just left in the middle of the night without saying good-bye or anything. Anyway, it was a fun evening, the same procedure as last year.

Then, I went to my Dad's birthday party. Soon got fed up with all the relatives who only talked about my remarkable weight loss. I like hearing about weight loss as much as the next woman, I guess, but after the 20^th person says: "You look so much better now" it gets on your nerves. No, I don't look better at all. I'm just thinner, that's all. I look exactly the same as always. But you wouldn't know, having seen me 10 years ago, approximately. My uncle's wife said: "You'll have a whole new life ahead of you". Excuse me? It's not like I weighed 200 kilos and had to be lifted around with a crane. A new life? Ummm. OK.

Well, I kept mostly to the English people as I hadn't seen most of them for ages. At least they didn't remark on my weight loss, thank you very much. One of them only said I was rather tan. Which I'm not either, but maybe compared to 10 years ago? Apart from that I realized my English is rather rusty. Especially when I am talking to British people because either I am speaking American English feeling like a dolt or I'm trying to assimilate British English which totally messes up everything.

That was the weekend. Today, I went jogging since I didn't have time this weekend. And I'd like to complain about stupid people again. I mean, honestly. Last Saturday somebody moved my waterbottle about 200 meters, but I found it again - I guess he/she thought it was funny. But today I was really annoyed. Somebody stole my energy bar! I don't eat breakfast before I run, usually I eat some bread, but today I didn't have any at home, so I figured I'd take an energy bar. After it had fallen out of my pocket about 5 times, I decided to deposit it on the side of the road. When I came to pick it up after 45 minutes it was gone. I suspect

a) old people taking it to the trashcan, muttering about "littering" all the while

b) fat American tourists who can't sustain themselves on the huge breakfast they probably had

c) OK, it might have been a squirrel.

That's all I can think of. c) being the only scenario that wouldn't upset me. I lean heavily towards b), however, as there was a couple of whale-sized people milling about the park and I guess an energy bar on the ground is too much of a temptation to resist. Grrrr. The result was that I couldn't really run as long as I had intended to. Try running 36 km without any carbohydrates. Doesn't work. Especially not if you're unable to think positive thoughts since you only want to hurt the person who took your energy bar. Grrrr. I hope whoever took it gets stomach cramps. Or struck by lightning, whichever's more convenient. OK, enough. Breathe in, breathe out. It doesn't really matter. Thank you for listening, I'll be right over here, working on my thesis paper.