OK. All I've been doing while everybody and their brother was frolicking at the Oktoberfest is crunch numbers. So today will be

Link Day

1) Send an e-mail to your future self.
2) After 9/11.
3) Bad Designs.
4) I believe! The face of Jesus in the hole in the Ozone Layer (page middle, right side. Muahaha)

Soon I'll be back with insightful commentary, witty bonmots etc.

Just got back my corrected paper and it looks like Moses would really enjoy it - a sea of red. Sigh. That's it for my weekend, I guess.

In other news, I saw Anna Lindh's funeral on the news today and was wondering what people would say at my funeral. I wonder how many people would turn up for a start. Probably not that many to begin with. Funerals usually are early, so that rules out most of my friends :) but usually food is served afterwards, which might entice some people to come (probably the main reason to serve food). I think I'd like to have a wake. Lay me on a bier and have some while you're at it (ha, ha, pun :).

I don't even have a will. Does anybody have one? I mean if you don't own large houses, boats and estates... Hereby I bequeath all my things to my cats, that sort of thing. Maybe we could have an open house afterwards where everybody who came to the funeral gets to pick some of my things to keep. Then again, there's not many things I own that anybody would want. But it's worth a try. To liven up the funeral (ha, ha, pun :) maybe a speech should be a requirement for subsequent open-house-attendance.

I wonder what would be said there. Anna Lindh had some good speeches. But there's really nothing one can say about me. I mean: "She almost finished university" doesn't quite have the ring it could. Oh, but I have it on authority of the chief editor at the SZ-Magazin: I am a pretty smart person. I have that in writing if anybody doubts it. (And I got a certificate that states I finished the riddle, too, by the way.) And I have the fast reading talent.

So:

She almost finished university, was a pretty smart person (says Jan Weiler) and able to read pretty fast. Rest in Peace, Monika.

Thank you. *sniff*

When I was watching the news tonight I remembered that when I was little I used to think Camp David was in Israel. I only knew that there was usually some Israeli or other meeting with the American President and David sounded like a typical Israeli name, after all, I knew King David. So, for the longest time I believed the American President spent his holidays in Israel. I wonder if I should be proud that I at least knew Camp David and knew it had something to do with the American President. What else did I know when I was little? I knew that there was war between Iran and Iraq (I remember the maps with flashes and tanks on them). I remember being explained by my Grandfather who Helmut Schmidt was and why I should vote for him (much to the chagrin of my conservative father).

I just checked a history page and I guess the things I remember start around the year 1979 or 1980. I definitely don't remember Mogadishu (which should have been a big topic around the year 1977). Then again, I don't remember my brother being born which was the same year and much closer to home. 1981 I remember Reagan and the Pope being shot. And I remember Solidarnosc (1980), because I had a sticker - from whence that came nobody knows. 1984 when I was 11 I apparently started becoming interested in the news because I know all the items mentioned on the page.

Strange that I remember those things but not the Falkland war. Or the fact the UDSSR shot down a passenger airplane. Or the assassination of Anwar as-Sadat.

Wooziness continues - but at least I've done all the required revisions and sent the thing to my tutor. Let's all hope together she doesn't find anything really bad. Please cross your fingers. Because if she doesn't I can just smack a title paper on top and turn it in on Monday. If she does, the weekend will be rather uninteresting because little numbers will dance all over my head. They're pesky.

What about the Champions League game? It was rather boring. (I asked Paul who was there "life" (sic!) and he thought it was boring, too, so it's not just me and my aversion to Bayern München.) Oh well, same same - boring game, Bayern wins. Then again, who wants to have a final Inter - AC Milano. Booooooring. If Bayern's in the final I can at least favour the other team :)

I hope 1860 wins their League game this week while Bayern loses, because then we would rank higher. (We are really happy with little victories :)

Everybody is in a rather crappy mood at the moment. I wonder if that's the start of Fall Depression - but the weather is so nice ... maybe it's just Crappy Mood Week. My mood isn't too good, either. Reasons being this and that and the upcoming exam. Hope I can use next week to cram because at the moment I know next to nothing. Que sera, sera. And the good thing about it is that everything will be finished on November 5^th. Everything. Yay! *dance the dance of Dipl. Psych*

Then I can put up a little couch and you can all come and tell me about your mothers while I'm trying to channel Siggi Freud. I'll even wear the tophat and the beard if you insist. Then again, I'll charge you a horrendous fee :)

Worked on my paper and am feeling slightly woozy. Too many numbers, too many numbers! Have to get up early tomorrow because it needs to be finished in the evening and at the moment I can't really concentrate on the numbers anymore. They are dancing in front of my eyes...tapdancing numbers. It's not a pretty sight.

Though I did take a break to

a) go to the hairdresser (where I got banged, ha, ha...)
b) watch the Champions League game where (of course) Bayern München won. Grmpf.

Oh, and I did get a new lipstick. That's the way it goes.

I went to www.namestatistics.com and it tells me this:

Monika is a very rare male name.
Very few men in the US are named Monika.
Be proud of your unique name!

No shit, eh?

More links:

a) in case you're planning to pick up a Christian Chick or
b) in case you've always wanted to custom design a greeting card with itty bitty nude men.

What happened today, you ask (you curious people, you)? Well, I'm always happy to oblige your every request, you know that:

The outlook on my final paper gets better and better, today's criticism hasn't been quite so harsh, and I'll probably make it in time for the deadline which is next Wednesday. Phew.

I bought a Dirndl today in case I am going to Oktoberfest. My own Dirndl used to be my Grandma's and I'd rather not wear it when standing on a table and intoning DJ Bobo's "Chihuahua song".

[FEMALE TOPICS ALERT]

I also bought a lipstick that was expensive as only lipsticks can be expensive but it turned out not to be in its wrapper. Drat. I'll try to exchange it tomorrow but I don't have high hopes :(( It's not so much the money (well, that too), but I was really looking forward to that lipstick. Lipfinity in case you were wondering.

And I am going to the hairdresser's tomorrow. Wish me luck, you know what happened last time.

[/FEMALE TOPICS ALERT]

Got three more books from a huge pile in Jule's room who is getting rid of everything that doesn't need to go to Berlin. Soon, my little books, soon I will have time to read you. (Infinite Jest being still at the top of my pile, of course.)

A thought that crossed my mind just now (not that it applies at the moment), but do you know how you can tell I am not in a good mood? In the morning I have my coffee out of the "Some day we'll look back on this and it'll all seem funny" mug and then I'll wear my little Garden Gnome Outfit (which is my grey hooded sweater) with the hood drawn up.

But do you know what always cheers me up? My singing banana.

       ^----Singing Banana B2. I have a B1, too, but that one's mute. (Some would say unfortunately, some wouldn't)

Not that there is a point to this, I just found this picture of the banana. In pyjamas. Who's coming down the staaaaaairs dumdedum

Today I saw Punk'd for about five minutes. It's a show on MTV if you don't know it ... I certainly didn't. It's one of those "hidden camera" shows. I saw the ending, and I was wondering ... those shows always work on the premise that at the end the host says: "Ha, ha, you're on Candid Camera!" and the guest goes: "Goshdarnit, stupid me!" But that always assumes the guest knows what the hell you're talking about. If one of those MTV idiots had framed me with something and then said: "Hey, Mon, you've been Punk'd!" I'd have yelled: "And I'll get Heavy Metal on your ass!" and kicked him in the - well wherever it hurt a lot - in the parking lot, maybe.

Then they'd have to show me the camera and drag me off him kicking and screaming. Well, I guess it still would be fun for the viewer. But I am wondering so many people know what the hosts are talking about. Maybe they're just faking. "Stupid thing happened to me, idiot said: 'Ha, ha, you've been on ', so it must be one of those Hidden Camera Shows. I'll just nod, smile and go: 'Oh man, I've been so stupid.'"

I saw Popstars, too, and just want to remark I've never seen so many people who can't sing but pretend to. I mean I can't sing either but that's why I'm not up on stage yelling into a microphone. And they are so over the top while they're "singing". I mean they have tremolo in their voices and vacillate all over the place, up and down and back up again, but can they hold a single note? No. My cats looked at them rather sternly. I guess they'd be able to sound much better if they tried hard enough.

Other than that, it came to my attention today that I have missed my blogiversary. I started this blog some time in July, I think so I guess I should have celebrated! Oh well..maybe if this thing is still running next year I'll throw confetti :)

Hooray! I just have returned from university where I managed to register my paper and now everything is set, if I can manage to turn it in before next Tuesday. Phew.

First I'll give you a fun link with optical illusions. Whoa...

Then I'll tell you about my weekend. It all started on Friday. If you look down you'll notice the time of my last entry. Half past one. If you know my weekend schedule, you know that I get up early to run my marathon training long runs. But to go to bed at half past one is OK, provided I get a good night's sleep. Ha! At 5:30 a.m. my roommate's crazy Spanish girlfriend called about 6 times. When I went to answer the phone she stated she would arrive in 15 minutes. 15 minutes turned into 45...then she rang the doorbell. I seriously considered leaving her outside, but figured that wouldn't help my goal of getting some sleep, hence I let her in and went to bed.Apparently, she didn't stay, but threw some of his papers around and then left. I was so pissed I couldn't sleep until 7 a.m. Grrr.

But actually that turned out to be quite good, because I always need something to think about when I am running and I could think about how I would yell at her which got my adrenaline way up. 36 km? No problemo. At the end I could have yelled at her in English, German and even Spanish. I was really proud of the Spanish part, by the way. Alas, I couldn't put it into action as she hasn't shown up in our apartment since and now I am not pissed enough anymore :)

Instead, Silke and me went to IKEA and spent a fortune for furniture when my roommate moves out and we'll install a living room in our apartment.

And yesterday I didn't really do anything but finish my paper.

What else? Some people left: Marco has gone to Seattle to be trained in the art of Amazon, Alex has gone to Florida to not really do anything, and Jule went to Berlin to find an apartment, but has since returned (don't know how the apartment thing turned out, yet).