Down with "quotation marks"!!! Good Example .. I mean "Bad" Example

Scientifically proven: A duck's quack DOES echo. Whoever brought up that it didn't, I wonder? Why shouldn't it? And which three words end in -gry? And where did that last dollar go? (Just kidding)

Kind of looks like it's sinking: Giant Jesus

This Link goes to a PBS documentary I saw called "Condition Black" which was FUCKING COOL and huge waves rule!

I've been sick the last two days - not enough hydration ... I hate drinking. Strange because I like eating and whenever I'm eating out I'm always drinking a lot. Only at home or in the office do I feel reluctant to drink. Anyway, I applied my trusty Winnie-the-Pooh hot-water bottle and am feeling somewhat better. Only one thing:

Remind me next time when I say: "Oh, I'm not taking my headache medicine, I guess it'll go away during the night" that it NEVER GOES AWAY and I'll end up stumbling through the darkness, additionally blinded by the knifes that are tearing through my brain, until I finally find the headache pills and dump a whole handful into my mouth (counting is out of the question). I know that that is what ALWAYS happens but I still try now and then. Note to myself: Don't. Headache medicine is good for you - migraine sucks.

It's still lurking somewhere in my brain - I probably should step away from the computer and sleep. I'll leave you a fun link to try out:

Enter a message and get one back

Need to get up real early but would rather watch The Shield which is on now at the moment, which I've never seen before but which seems interesting. I like watching TV series that take place in a police station - especially late at night. Used to be a big fan of Night Heat, too, which was always on at one a.m. while I was still in school, young and could take going to bed late and getting up early.

Speaking of early - I'm starting to hate my project. Thing needs to be finished on Friday and I fear that might take all night AND the next morning which I have NO INTENTION whatsoever of doing.

What else? Have no money and am not in the best of moods, feel a little sick but at least my boyfriend will come over on the weekend. Yay.

I'm back

Yay! Project's (almost) over. I'm not sure I like being a business woman. Miss the cats, miss the BF, miss home. Strange, because I like travelling, I just don't like being with strange people every hour of the day. Makes me queasy or summat.

Fun Fact of the Day:

England may end up in a different time zone than Scotland. Wow. There you are, on the same island, but don't have the same time, just because someone says so - strange somehow.

If you don't know what your cat means with their facial expression, please check here for reference!

Patience, little grasshopper

I know updates have been coming far, few and frequent in between, but only one more week of jetsetting business travel (which is vastly overrated in my opinion). Then I'll be all yours.

Oh dear, it's been really long since my last entry and it'll be really long until my next. What happened? Been away on business, acquired a boyfriend, going away on business again on Monday.

Met the boyfriend over the internet - see? It does work, kids. Don't try this at home. You never know if there's mass murderers out there!

At the moment: Waiting for my mass murderer to arrive. He has no mobile phone (on principle *sigh) so it's all wait and guess, guess and wait...

This weekend the Oktoberfest will start. I've never been too fond of that, but I'd really like to watch the Trachtenumzug. I've never been there!!! Never ever!!! (One should go there if one lives in Munich, my opinion. Since it starts at 10 a.m. and the B.F. complained, chances are rather slim this year, however.

...undecided and a little bit depressed...

I like this smiley --> o_O <-- cause it looks so flabbergasted. I also like the word "flabbergasted". Have I mentioned that? Well, I do.

Yesterday I was watching the MTV VMAs and I felt really old since I didn't know half of the people and considered them to be dressed like a blind man in a rag factory. Also cornrows seem to be all the rage at the moment. WHY?

Vicky Beckham is preggers again. Hoo boy. What'll it be called this time? Birmingham maybe. Or Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes is actually kind of cool for a boy.

Can you tell I've got nothing to say? Tomorrow me and S. are looking at a house. I'll keep you updated. Speaking of update: New picture. Too big? Vote now or hold your peace.

*shakes it like a polaroid picture*

CRAZY AUCTIONS...1
CRAZY AUCTIONS...2
CRAZY AUCTIONS...sold to the person who clicks this link

It's raining, I haven't been to the doctor yet but I am feeling somewhat resigned about everything and don't really care. And I'm hungry. Working wreaks havoc with food issues - I'm much too lazy to prepare stuff beforehand. Each morning I spend 2 Euros at the bakery and just buy crap to tide me over until lunch / dinner / whatever snack's in my desk drawer at the time. And most of the time I don't really have time / want to shop for fresh ingredients or don't feel like cooking at all. Good nutrition is a word (two, strictly speaking) I have to look up in the dictionary. This reminds me of a show at EPCOT where the food groups sing various 60s songs with the lyrics changed to instil an urge to go out and buy broccoli. "I'm talkin' 'bout good nutrition. Good, good, good, good nutrition" (sung to the tune of "Good vibrations" in case you were* wondering).

*note: I just corrected a typo and a trend I've come to discover in recent times: my typos start reflecting the stereotypic Germanic spelling that's often used in novels ("Ja, you vere vondering vot zis is all about") Wonder what that means..

Speaking of food, yesterday I prepared a delicious Wok dinner. Yum Wok. And tomorrow I'm going out to the Indian restaurant again. They already know us and greet us with handshakes. However, we've witnessed people being greeted with kisses - that's the ultimate goal!!!) I'm getting hungry writing all this. Let's open the drawer - M&M's. Goody.

Today's Special: Link Soup

Pretty picture from way, way up high

It's a miracle - the incredible Winking Jesus!

Is your flag crap? Do you hate those clashing colours on the Brazilian flag? Bored with the Libyan flag? Amazed by Japanese simplicity? See what Josh has to say.

If I'm cut off in traffic one more time, I'll get ONE OF THOSE BABYS and then we'll see who has the last laugh! Muahaha!

No wonder my mood is rotten - I feel like total crap. I have hot and cold flashes and my heart beats like crazy. This in turn makes me feel really antsy all the time, as if I'm nervous or stressed out. People are asking me whether something bothers me all the time - apparently I also look stressed. I couldn't sleep very well the other night and I am rather tired. These are all symptoms I had last when the hyperthyroidism was in full bloom, hence I suppose there's something wrong with my thyroid hormones. I wanted to go to the doctor today but I overslept :(

Other than that, my mood is just crap in general, my knees hurt, I have sore muscles, I'm nervous that my client won't like the report I wrote, the cat's eye is still sore and I'm worrying about personal stuff, too. Yadda yadda yadda complain complain complain whine whine whine whinge whinge whinge. I like the word "whinge".

What I hate hate hate is when people mistakenly capitalize the German word "Sie". It's not really hard. "Sie" is ONLY capitalized at the beginning of a sentence AND WHEN IT ADRESSES THE READER DIRECTLY. "sie" means a group of people. So if you capitalize it it looks like you're adressing me, you putz! I feel annoyed by that because I feel responsible for crap that's none of my business. Get. It. In. Your. Head!

Example: Discussion about the Iraq War.

"Die Amerikaner. Werden sie den Irak angreifen?"
"The Americans. Will they attack Iraq?"

"Die Amerikaner. Werden Sie den Irak angreifen?"
"The Americans. Will YOU attack Iraq?"

See the difference? And NO, I am not going to attack Iraq, thankyouverymuch. This is how huge diplomatic misunderstandings arise and more importantly, my already stressed nerves get even more frayed than they already are.

I'm in a crap mood today so I'm reading Maddox and agreeing with everything. Especially the piece about Mel Gibson's tits. Teach it, brother.

No time for movies? Try the 30 second version. With bunnies.

The Meaning of Liff - now you can check out the meaning of words you didn't know even existed...

I don't like fighting with people. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes that's a bad thing. Whenever I DO fight with somebody, I feel excruciatingly bad and most of the time I can't sleep a wink. That's not the case today but I'm still somewhat uneasy. And it wasn't even a huge fight. Bah.

Also, I wish I wouldn't always keep racking my brain (yes, it is the correct way to spell it, I checked. "Wracked" is also acceptable, apparently, the spelling I chose, is ethymologically correct as it comes from the medieval torture instrument, however. Learn something every day)...where was I...ah...I wish I wouldn't keep racking my brain all the time whether what I did/said/chose was the correct thing to do/say/choose. Relax! Relax, dammit!

*pantpantpant

Not relaxed. More or less high-strung, no idea where that comes from.

Today the phone rings. It's the Mops, calling from Berlin. The Mops has locked himself out of the apartment and wonders where his girlfriend is spending the evening. As it may be, he just has acquired a new mobile phone which unfortunately does not contain her mobile number. Fortunately, though, he could dial our number by heart (see! it's important AND easy to memorize our phone number!) and TA DA! Phone Mon came to the rescue and contacted the stray girlfriend. *ring* "Hello?" "This is Mon. Where are you?" "In the car. Can I call you back?" "No. That's not my point. It's the Mops. He's in the park." "Where?" "In the park." "WHERE?" "IN THE PARK!! LOCKED HIMSELF OUT!!! FOR FIVE HOURS NOW!" "Oh-my-god." "Yep."

If you're a player but your car's a piece of crap you need to PIMP YO' RIDE!!! (Can you tell I'm too lazy to go outside and do more action-laden stuff?) I love Pimp My Ride. They take crap cars and paint them in screaming colours and do stuff like installing chandeliers or coffeemakers. Usually they also add a totally useless high-price gadgets like a PSII or a wide-screen TV in the trunk or a laptop in the glove compartment. What they never do is fix the car. Yeah, my car hasn't been moving for a year now, but I keep it in the driveway to brew my coffee in the morning.

Gloom Schmoom. It's a Blazing Bunny of Doom!!!!!!

Stormy Weather

Outside and inside ... all gloom and doom and rain and thunder and chaos. Isn't there a song that's called "Stormy Weather"? *goes to google* Yep, by Billie Holiday. I'll amend it to fit time, place and space:

Don’t know why there’s no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Keeps rainin’ all the time
Life is bare, gloom and mis’ry everywhere
Stormy weather
Just can’t get my poorself together,
I’m weary all the time
So weary all the time
All I do is pray the lord above will let me walk in the sun once more.
Can’t go on, ev’ry thing I had is gone
Stormy weather
Keeps rainin’ all the time

Sort of like that. She was a depressed one, was she ever, that Billie Holiday. Dead, of course. Well, my mood doesn't quite fit that, it's more like twirling around aimlessly. Strange. I just wish it wouldn't.

Feeling confused, weird and strange. Eek. Bah humbug. I'd rather not. My knees are hurting, too and I'm doubting the marathon training's progress.

*deep sigh

Feeling rather tired. I've done so much sightseeing over the last weekend it can't be expressed in numbers anymore. There still is so much left over to sightsee, though! My feet ache, too - why is it that sandals always kill feet? Blisters all over. The last hour or so I walked barefoot and that even though we've been cooling our feet in rivers/lakes/whatnot this weekend. "We" meaning B. and myself *waves merrily in the vague direction of D.* who needed a heavy dose of power sightseeing which I'm good at :) (apart from the foot thing). I'd actually wanted to do some work now but I guess I won't (seeing as I am watching the Bad News Bears at the moment).

Any more events?

Cat I has a sore eye and needs eye cream applied 4 times a day. Cat II has decided she only wants to sleep in the kitchen in a basket I wanted to give back to my Mom.

My parents are cycling towards Hamburg (probably not this very moment but in general) and my Dad lost his saddle bag - "saddle" used in loose terms, it was attached to the handle bar. How do you lose that without noticing? Anyway.

What else? I am eating crackers. My marathon training has gone to hell. The Raetselrennen is progressing nicely.

Blah. Am to lazy to think at the moment. Will post a picture instead.

Spot the nekkid people

Today I feel sick. Stayed home from work, too. I certainly hope that I will feel better tomorrow as I have a) lots to do at work b) need to clean the apartment c) we're getting a new couch d) I'll have a visitor over the weekend and need to prepare (see b)) e) lots of other stuff still pending - do you need to GO to a police station to tell them about the loss of your bike or can you just call them? I don't have time for all this. I would also need to go to the hairdresser and I need to pick up some of my regular medication from the pharmacy ("Can I order it for you?" "Sure." - never went back there to pick it up, I hope they still have it.) Boy, oh boy. I guess I'll rather stay here on this couch (as long as I still have it and give you some links to stupid games I can't play cause my head and my eyes hurt.

Separate the bouncing balls!

Escape!

Sucky Day

Somebody stole my favouritest bike of all times :((((((

And my throat has started hurting. I want to go home but I can't as there's loads of work but I can't concentrate. Meh.

PICTURE TIME!

At the registry office

The "real" wedding

Hi from L.A. Mustering up the energy to go to the beach. My sense of time and place is rather wonky.

mood = good
destination = NYC
ETR = wednesday
^--estimated time of return

Sometimes I think I should learn from my mistakes. But I never do.

This weekend I've been trying out new restaurants. On Friday S. and me went to have dinner at the new Indian place round the corner which was excellent (the Indian place not the corner). Yesterday some friends and me went and had Lebanese food at Sahara City. Really good as well and rather exciting to boot what with the belly dancer and everything.

I'm baaaaack. Not for long, on Tuesday I have to go to the US, but that will be the last trip for a while - I should be home in August in case anybody wants to drop by.
 
Frankfurt recap:
 
Met E. for coffee in the city. Found out that her apartment is situated right next to the hotel. Duh.
 
Got lost in a Frankfurt park which was fenced in with barbed wire - I crawled through a hole and did not find an exit on the other side. When I found one I had to basically travel through the whole city to get back to where I started.
 
Met B. who was really nice and we had a good time, even if we never DID find the Maintower. Then again, there were enough towers to go around and we saw a couple. And we did see the club the Preluders had their first show at. Ahem. Maybe I shouldn't know casting shows as well as I do.
 
Went back with crazy train service personnel ("Speisen auf Reisen - Snacken auf Strecken").
 
Picked up my car today - yay!!! It's just beautiful. Drove around looking like a blonde chick in a convertible. Which I am. That's why.
 
Now I am back on the couch and for this reason and that my mood is kind of mopey.

Must be sung to the tune of "Wizard of Oz"

I'm off to go to Frankfurt, to wonderful Frankfurt I go.

(Follow the yellow brick road)

Today I got up rather early to go through the whole city to take another look at my potential new car. Turned on the radio: "Traffic jam in the direction INTO the city." Went there, stood out in the cold (what is it with the temperature? It's July, for Christ's sake!) then decided to buy it.

And there it is: The Yay For The Day! New car! Yippee! Here it is, my precioussss:



Anyhow, went back. "Traffic jam in the direction OUT OF the city" now. Phoned the bank and was told I need to pay interest when I want to withdraw my money from the bank. Why? "It's in the small print". Oh, yeah. Great. Charge me for withdrawing MY OWN MONEY. Apparently that's the law (or so they said) if it's not on a checking account. Right. Of course they didn't TELL me that when I asked whether I could withdraw my money at all times. They just said "yes", which is correct: I CAN withdraw my money at all times, I just need to PAY for it. Bah humbug.

Also, my hand smells like the perfume of the lady I am buying the car from. Yuck! How can you douse yourself in perfume like that? Poor little car, being exposed to that.

And I want to say that I don't understand people who drive a Smart car. WTF? It's like driving one of those little bumper cars on the fair. Since it's so small, every little bump in the street makes it bob up and down so I was afraid I'd get seasick. And if that wasn't enough, it's motor isn't the best, so when you stand at a light and want to start driving, usually people start honking behind you because you can't get moving really fast. Then it waits until it's in really high gear (WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW) until it shifts with a jerk(WWWWWWWWWclunkhophophopWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW). If you're going from 0 to 100 that means being thrown around like somebody riding a Bronco in a rodeo. Whoa!

I mean, don't get me wrong, they're pretty big inside, lots of space for you and your passenger and they're ideal for parking. Plus, the ashtray's really big (not that I was smoking but I've always hated those itty bitty ashtrays you can only hit under great difficulty while scattering ash all over the place). But other than that? Try it if you ever get the option but for heaven's sake don't consider buying one! Terrible. Terrible.

Which reminds me that I went to see Spiderman II and it wasn't too good. I mean it was OK but not really great - but I've heard a lot of dissenting opinion so you might want to check for yourselves. Let me give you a list:

Good Things

• Comic drawings telling the backstory at the beginning of the credits (might be only a plus if you're a Comic Book Geek like me)
  
• Tobey Maguire just fits the role perfectly
  
• Ditto Alfred Molina. A great actor and a great villain.
  
• Choice of villain and execution of Dr. Octopus. Go go robotic arms!
  
• Bruce Campbell as "Obnoxious Usher". Bruce is Da Man!
  
• Spot Stan Lee! (I like to do this in any Marvel film)
  
• JJJ also is a perfect casting decision and the scenes in the Daily Bugle are great.

Overall great comic-book-ey look and feel, some scenes were executed very well (the "Raindrops are falling on my head" sequence was a thing of sheer beauty).

Bad Things

• First of all, lack of decent story. Just drawn out and pointless at times. Some loose ends, but that might be resolved with Spiderman III, who knows.
  
• Wrong casting decision: MJ. I am sorry, but Kirsten Dunst just clashes with the picture of MJ I have in my head.
  
• At times crappy, overwrought dialogue. Come on, whose grandma gives a speech about Being A Hero Inside? I heard some gagging noises and sometimes laughter around me, so there were some other people of that opinion.
  
• Ties in with crappy, overwrought scenes that overdid the comic book thing. (the "People passing Spiderman over their head" scene comes to mind, every scene that stars little kids and/or the American Flag)

If Sam Raimi had just toned down the pathos at times and turned up the wisecracking I think I might have enjoyed it more. As is, it teetered on the brink of Do I like it?/Don't I like it? So I'd not really recommend it.

Today I'm tired and grouchy again. Tomorrow, Marathon training will start and I won't have much time for anything what with travelling for work and training and everything else that's going on. And maybe I'll have car news.

There's a Clanger! And a fish wearing a funny hat! And loads of other things!

Are you evil? Are ya?

I usually don't like to post links to those quizzes, but this one looked like fun AND I'm Agent Smith which is kind of cool:



N'other couple of fun links

Look at what math can do. Pretty pictures inside!

Are you bored? Why not look at ah..somebody's or others list of Wonders of the World. I doubt that the Las Vegas Strip is on the official list. Or is it? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Other than that, I'm basically the only person working at my company now and thus rather busy. Did meet up with my ex boyfriend yesterday and am meeting T. and M. today who are leaving the country, apparently. (I'll be asking you tonight about that, Mr M., I didn't get the whole story yesterday :)

And I am looking at a little Mazda MX-5 tomorrow morning. Seems like a good bargain. Keep your fingers crossed - the owner said there had been only one guy to look at it so far and he said he'd think about it. Roommate, by the way, has bought a little blue Mini with white stripes.

Jawoll, mein Herr!

Just an observation: When you're speaking English and people say: "Wow, you have no accent!" I guess what they actually mean is: "Wow, you don't speak like the Germans they show us on TV".

Why I have no money

Just wanted to rent a cheap little Smart car for the week-end. At the last moment I decided to look for something on the webpage and opened another window, browsed around in it and also changed the date. Then I went back to the original page and blindly clicked OK. Now I am the proud renter of a Smart for a whole month and set back around 500 Euros if I can't get them to change my reservation but nobody's answering the friggin' hotline. Grr-Argh!

Blah

Tired and a little out of sorts - had something happening today that was kind of strange and didn't make me feel to good. Don't want to go into the details, it wasn't an earth-shattering event in any case, just a little something off-colour.

I'm on a business trip (again, yay me ...) but I just wanted to drop by here to tell you that I am reading The Da Vinci Code and I don't know who made this book the huge bestseller that it was because it's a *yell* HUGE PIECE OF CRAP */yell* (*pantpant* thankyouverymuch for letting me vent) I mean come on - the author introduces his leading people as really smart cryptologists. Then he puts riddles in the book that a three-year-old could see through and they are hemming and hawing. In the chapter I am reading now they are looking at a piece of paper that has backwards written English words on it and are musing about whether it's Hebrew or some unknown language. Please.

Also, the whole concept of the book is ridiculous - this guy gets shot and has 20 minutes to live but he still devises this INGENIOUS set of codes that ONLY his granddaughter can see through (the aforementioned puzzles for three-year-olds - then again, the granddaughter apparently is as smart as a sack of beans). That's not the point here, though, but because even if they're totally easy they're rather elaborate and in no way would anybody find the time to think about devising such codes, writing stuff on top of the Mona Lisa (yeah right) and then positioning himself in a certain way so that the leading expert in symbolism later on has NO IDEA WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO MEAN and spouts off stupid drivel about female/male symbolism even though the reader is pounding his/her head on a wall in near frustration and yelling "Think Leonardo, you dumbass!!!". Oh, he also writes a number on a piece of paper (lateron the protagonists need an account number and go "Duh. We haven't got a number. No number at all. If he only had left a number." Hello?? Brain?? Anybody home? About an hour later they think of it.

In addition the book is written in a way I absolutely hate: Building up towards a secret and then not telling it to keep suspense up when there's no reason (within the confines of the story) not to tell it. Like: "The secret of the Holy Grail is really shocking. It will shock you a lot. Very shocking, that. I can't tell you know because saying the one sentence that would tell you about it would take too much time and you know we are in a truck going somewhere for hours but if I tell you know you'd be so shocked because it's a really shocking secret. SHOCKING!! Not telling you though. Later. (Did I tell you it was shocking?)" And almost every chapter contains one of those "shocking" secrets that people DO NOT TELL. Grr-Argh!!!

Need to go now - my time is running out on this internet café thingy. If I can think about more I will post more on this piece of shite later (hopefully they will have divulged the SHOCKING secret - which, to me, is crystal clear anyway and not at all shocking, but hey, what can you do).

Holy flurking schnitt!

The Greeks actually have won the Euro 2004. Who would have guessed? Boy, oh boy.

Business as usual

My business trip sucked for various reasons, not the least of which are my recurring bouts of migraine that have taken on rather hellish proportions at time.

However, on my way back through the Frankfurt pedestrian zone I got a rather beautiful present:



Looks good on cats AND mons!

Wearing that opened a floodgate of people talking to me and soon I had acquired a Romanian guy who - like me - needed to find the train station, - unlike me - explained the parking situation in Bucharest in great detail and exclaimed: "Isn't it wonderful" whenever spying a skyscraper (also unlike me).

Left the Romanian guy at a shop where the shopkeeper offered to beat up any thief who would so much as look at my luggage while I traded some money for a big bottle of water (that I didn't touch during the train ride but which provided ease of mind inasmuch as you know you can always have a drink if you want to which you always want if you have NO bottle of water).

On the train as always there were people yelling at each other - strangely enough they had made peace by Mannheim. That peace was greatly disturbed in Stuttgart when at least 200 old ladies entered the train (and here I roughly use "enter" as in "pirate"). Since all of them were somewhat hard of hearing, the seating arrangements needed to be discussed in earth-shattering volume (only one person had the reservation with the seat numbers and kept yelling them while the ladies swarmed all over the place). Then the crutches needed to be put away (only one lady was tall and spry enough to do that). And when they all had found a seat, they all got up again to gather round one lady who told them dirty jokes about whores (I swear I am not making this up).

Meanwhile, I tried to read How to be good by Nick Hornby *note: is that better, Marco? :)* which I didn't care for that much. That and I did the crossword puzzle in the SZ-Magazin where I just now took part in the competition to win the ATV (look at the ad on the left but don't enter the competition, I want to win, if you win and turn up in front of my apartment with the thing there will be some serious wailing and teeth-gnashing going on).

Then I looked out the window - I enjoy doing that on train rides as opposed to car rides because you do get to see things instead of looking at only bushes and trees. It's like looking at a little model train station with static little people, but these people are actually alive... I always think that's strange - like looking into a window or seeing a snapshot of somebody you don't know doing whatever it is they're doing at the moment. It's like you have something in common for one second; while you're riding the train, they're sitting on a bench / dining / shopping / talking and once that second passes you'll go different ways and never meet again your whole life.

That ties in with another idea that I have which I call:

What's George doing now?

Sometimes I stop in my tracks and think: "What's George Clooney up to now?" and then I look at the watch, try to roughly guess where George is located and what the time difference is and then imagine what he's doing now. "Oh, it's breakfast time - George must just now have opened the fridge to take out milk to pour on his cereal." Or something. Doesn't need to be George - though it originated the one time I watched the live E.R. episode and I KNEW what George was doing at that moment.

Going on a business trip today...will be back on Sunday for the finals. Yassas again! (see below)

Yassas!

The other day, somebody called me who I hadn't seen in a long time. He was in Munich and why shouldn't he come over and visit? Long time no see after all. I wondered a little because we hadn't been real close but hey, why not? Then he arrived and we really didn't have much to say and it was rather awkward. Then he started talking about how it was really important to have good insurance these days...

Aha. That's why you came over. To sell me insurance. Bah humbug! If you can't make money without pestering your old "friends" maybe you should choose some other profession. I wouldn't even buy insurance off him if I thought he was competent (which I don't). And I sure as hell won't make time for meeting him again.

Also: One shouldn't get up too early as it was pretty nice weather when I got up. I dressed for sunshine. For warmth. For dry good weather. Toddled around in the apartment, humming merrily (cats cowering under the couch), but then the weather got nasty, I had to change clothes and my bright mood dimmed considerably. That's where I am now. Sitting at work, waiting for rain, mood = dim.

By the way, I just remembered I wanted to recommend Cryptonomicon to y'all - I read it on the beach and really enjoyed it.

The blurb says it's three books rolled into one - a spy novel, a war novel and some tech stuff thrown into the mix and I totally agree with the blurb. And although I do not usually like spy and war novels I thought they never went too far into their respective fields to not be enjoyable. It's basically three separate stories that are intertwined somehow - at the beginning you're not sure how exactly, but the stories are merged at the end. I like that.

Also, I thought the story would be bogged down by a lot of crypto stuff; you know, formulas and the like. But while those are incorporated, they're usually explained so well that even I would get them and if not you can skip them without any further detriment to the story (I thought at least). But then again I am somewhat interested in crypto stuff and bought Enigma by Robert Harris (of Fatherland fame, a great novel BTW) which really sucked because there was absolutely NO crypto stuff in it which I considered cheating. Boo.

I'm in a rather good mood since being returned from Greece and all that. Maybe it's the sun. It'll probably fade soon.

A couple of useful sites that I've run across:

Want to read but don't want to register? Fear no more and go to Bugmenot.com where they'll give you a handy login and password.

Want to have mail delivered to you but no spam? Again hold your horses and visit Mailinator. When asked for an e-mail, all you have to do is type in whatevercomestomind@mailinator.com and instantly a mailbox is created. Now you enter that at Mailinator, take your e-mail, the mailbox vanishes and voilà! No spam, no hassle.

I have a new picture up: me and a mule. I'm the one wearing the silly hat. On all my vacation pictures I am wearing the same t-shirt, but I did take others.

Today I had to lie to somebody and I discovered I don't like that. It wasn't really bad - I had to pretend to want to buy a car´, which didn't really hurt anybody, but still I felt I was cheating the sales guy. He now thinks I'm interested in buying the car for which he probably gets a bonus when all he did was waste his time driving around with me.

And once you tell a lie you need to make up all those other lies to go with it. Why do you want to buy a new car? What car do you have now? Where is it parked? What color do you want? Do you have time to go over the configuration? I hate that. Didn't like the car either. Then again, he lied to me, too. It was an SUV and he asked whether I drove more in the city or more in the country. The answer "city" prompted him to say that an SUV was IDEAL for that because of the high seating position. Huh? SUV? Ideal for the city? As in "Off-Road"? As in "Forget about EVER finding a parking space"? As in "Never ever see a cyclist again"? I don't think so, Mister.

But you might like to read what Dave Barry has to say on the subject of SUVs, gas-guzzling unsafe behemoths of Hell that they are.

By the way, I am still trying to decide on a new car (unrelated to the story above which was for reasons purely business): I've decided on three candidates at least:

• The Mazda MX5
  
• The Fiat Barchetta OR
  
• The Peugeot 307 Convertible

The Mazda and the Fiat are both nice, little convertibles, seating two each. They are virtually indistinguable, but I am tending vaguely towards the former, as I fondly remember my little Mazdy (God rest his little soul driving around in Poland et al.). The Peugeot seats four people but is the most expensive and also rather new, hence not available in an used version...

Decisions, decisions.

Greece is neece

Rhyming-Mon has spoken.

Why did D. and I choose Greece? Because Africa, where we had planned to go originally, turned out to be rather expensive and my car expired two weeks ago (a sad story, by the way). Yes, it's no good form to start a sentence with because but that's just how I went about it, so deal.

Anyway, Greece it was. And it was really fun and relaxing. I can heartily recommend it. We went to Rethymnon, which is a small town in the North of Crete. Booked it on the internet (hey, we're Generation X, we have to). Last minute, too and it was rather on the cheap side. The price of the vacation, not the hotel. The hotel was great: The Minos Hotel. It was clean, the food was good, and there weren't too many German tourists - I reckon if I want to spend my vacation among Germans I might also stay at home.

Instead, there were lots of European tourists, nationality of which to be recognized by the various pieces of football apparel worn. There was a marked prevalence of English people, but that might also be attributed to the prevalence of English football fans within the English population.

We spent most of our time at the beach - relaxing WAS the aim of our vacation, after all. Once we planned an excursion to Knossos (Minos Palace! Highly historical!!) which was timed rather exquisitely as that happened to be the only slightly cloudy day. Knossos wasn't worth it, though: there's really nothing there to see, so the Greek have put up a couple of plaster pillars and some fake vase. Not really exciting, that.

At least we could gladly spend our days at the beach, the only other things we did was visit the local fortress (more spectacular than Knossos, in any case) and then do a trip to the Samaria Gorge. That was rather sporty of us: 16 kms, 1200 metres downwards. On the day itself we managed that in 4,5 hrs and were rather proud of us. On the next day, however, that had changed to excruciating pain; there was no way we could manage to move any slope that vaguely sloped downwards, let alone walk down stairs.

As I type this, I still vaguely feel cramps in my calves - whoa! Good thing we went home the day after, though I could have stayed on the beach for another couple of weeks. At least I got a lot of reading done. That and crossword puzzles. I always do crossword puzzles at the beach.

I really don't want to go to work tomorrow. Blech. Work includes lots of travelling around at the moment and I'd rather not. Oh well, at least I have work.

Oh, and regarding the vacation, if you'd like to see pictures, click here!!

I welcome you back to this blog with this outrageous story. Cheating at the Grand Prix Eurovision!!! Who'da thunk it? Be sure to watch the video.

In other news:

I went to Greece where it was nice and relaxing. Pictures and a report are to follow as soon as I stop feeling lazy.

The Euro 2004 is progressing smoothly. Germany went home (as predicted - did anybody seriously believe we wouldn't). Before, I bet on Portugal becoming the Euro champion. Now, I am rather sad to see the English go - I like Wayne Rooney. Oh well, he broke his foot anyhow. Plus, now I am for Greece. Go Greece! Because whoever can object to having them win? They've never won ANYTHING so far, it would be a joyous event.

Re-Open for business

I just want to announce that I'm going on vacation tomorrow but after that I'll take this thing up again and see how it goes.

Today I had 20 hits on this closed blog. Maybe I should reopen it. I kind of miss having the place to post fun links and things...

THINKING.

I hate, hate, HATE going to the hairdresser. First they berate me for not keeping my hair well conditioned - I've been trying to condition my hair for 30 years now and it has never worked. I always end up looking like my hair just exploded, buying useless but overpriced conditioner and hating everybody with perfect looking hair. Sometimes I wish I was bald so I could just polish my head and give it a good shine. (No, not really, but just to illustrate how much I HATE going to the hairdresser.)

I went jogging!!! For 30 minutes!!! Yay me! Then I ate so much that I think something is going to burst pretty soon. Don't know whether that's the way things were meant to be.

The Gilmore Girls episodes I downloaded under great duress don't work. *grumblegrumble* Neither do the Scrubs episodes. So much for my plans for today. I'll have to think of something else. In the meantime I'm watching Jamie's Kitchen.

I'm off tomorrow and on Friday as there's nothing to do at work. Wondering if I should go somewhere. But where? Do I really want to? Maybe I should stay home and do all those things that require to be done such as taxes and finally sending my computer to be fixed. I also wanted to put things on ebay to get some of the money back in that I spent on useless things.

Are you as annoyed as I am by amazon telling you: "If you sell everything that you bought from us you could earn a GAZILLION euros" ... Yes, I know I spent way too much on amazon, thank you for telling me.

But there's places to go and things to see! Venture out! Exciting adventures! Hmmm...I seriously doubt I'm in the mood for adventures. Maybe I'm the boringest person that ever lived. Or it's my age. Gallivanting about doesn't quite hold the appeal it used to. Then again, I'm already considering giving up my job and travelling round the world. Work schmork. That and the hammock plan sound rather appealing.

At least the stomach has settled down...

Nekkid Spanish people spelling my name

Post-Easter Extravaganza

So, Easter has passed without leaving a trace. Other than my stomach really acting up - I'm feeling rotten since Thursday evening. No idea why - well, I DID have a couple of beers (I went to the Cinerama concert as mentioned which was brilliant by the way) but not really too much.

On Friday that led to me sitting on the couch rather dejectedly together with the cats (who are recovering from their operation quite well) while everybody else went to the Andechs monastery. However, it was fun seeing J. and K. again. It's kind of strange when one's friends have left.

On Saturday we went to have Japanese food and I had to stop eating after two pieces of Sushi. Stomach cramps aren't really a guarantee for a fun evening. At least I didn't have too much to drink that night.

On Sunday I went to have Easter lunch at my parents' house. Blatant disregard for the stomach thing led to utter misery later on. Same thing yesterday. Today nothing much has happened yet but I really haven't had anything to eat yet.

Was that what you wanted to hear? Probably not. TMI and all that.

Yesterday we've been talking about the meaning of life and your job. Today I have a particular senseless feeling. I mean, my job is pretty meaningless as is - market research. Who really needs that? Having nothing to do at market research is even worse. But seriously, I do enjoy working here and usually I enjoy what I do. But ultimately it doesn't make a lot of sense and I was thinking about whether I'd want to do it my whole life long. There's a saying: "Nobody ever died wishing they'd have spent more day at the office" and that's probably very true.

Well, Happy Easter to all of you and if you need to be entertained you might want to tell the chicken what to do. Or not. It's up to you. Not to the chicken, however.

Funny game!! ** Sarbakan: Good Night, Mr. Snoozleberg **

Sometimes I take things way too personal, I guess. That and I feel slightly queasy from eating too much chocolate. Makes me kind of grouchy, all that. That's today, though. What about tomorrow? Tomorrow I have to

a) bring the kitties to the vet to be spayed (poor Puffels)

b) take the day off (as per request of my boss - I don't object)

c) pick up the kitties from the vet

d) fuss over the poor Puffels and cuddle them

e) go to the Cinerama concert (Yay!) (Double Yay!!)

Boy, oh boy. A cake not for the faint of heart, I say. "It was at this point that I realized the liver was beyond salvaging" - boy, oh boy.

A murder of crows

I just chose this headline because I've always found it funny that lots of crows are called a "murder". Sinister things, those crows. Actually, I couldn't tell a crow apart from a raven if my life depended on it. Not very keen on birds, I am. Anyway, that wasn't the point.

The point is that I woke up this morning with a Counting Crows song stuck in my head: "Rain King"

I belong in the service of the queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She’s been dying, I’ve been drinking
And I am the rain king

due to the fact that I heard it yesterday on Scrubs but still turns the dial on "mood for the day" to "grey and rainy". (Which it is outside, as well. Coincidence? I don't think so) Plus, I woke up with a headache.

Arsenal lost, too, yesterday (and I am kind of partial to Arsenal since I watched "Fever Pitch". Shallow? Me? No way Jose!). That and I don't like people winning just because they had money to buy the best players. In that vein I was pleasantly surprised that Monaco (!) won against Real Madrid (!) From what I saw it looked like an exciting game, too - but usually the short recaps do look more exciting than the game in total.

Hit the egg!!! Hit the egg!!! HIT THE EGG!!!

Do you like to paint but really, really suck at it? Don't worry, there's more people like you. And they even have a museum.

Weekend Update

Maybe I should take up exciting hobbies. Parachuting or something. Then I'd have to tell something. As is, nothing much has been happening. On Friday I went to have pizza. Which is always good. Then I went to the sneak preview. Which is almost never good. In this case, we saw Taking Lives which turned out to be a rather lame serial killer movie, ripping off "Seven". With Angelina "Big Lips" Jolie as the Profiler with a capital P. You know, the kind who takes a look at the crime scene and knows that the killer was a lefthanded nun from Kentucky who did it with the candlestick in the library. That always annoys me to some extent. Especially when said profiler couldn't point to the murderer if he had "MURDERER" tattooed on his forehead. Which she couldn't. It was rather ridiculous. And the movie relied on "scare tactics", meaning they'd build up suspense and then a corpse/somebody would turn up "unexpectedly". Squeak!! Eek!! Scream...um...yeah right - mostly we laughed about everything. It DID catch the women in front and in back of me by surprise EVERY FREAKING TIME, though. Duh. Pierced my eardrums somewhat, that did. Is O.K. to watch if nothing's on TV on a rainy Sunday evening. Other than that - nah, not really.

Yesterday I bought a dress for my brother's wedding. Didn't improve my mood as I had to look at myself in a mirror all day. Why do shops have these bright lights in dressing rooms? One looks like a shapeless blob. Well, maybe not every"One", but I do. Plus, going through all those fashionable shops reminded me that I'm not in the least fashionable. Don't mind that much (especially in the light of today's trends - shudder) but I hate having salespeople look down on me because I'm wearing my baggy pants and my t-shirt.

In the evening I did nothing to improve my blobby figure: We all had Raclette. But at least we played exhausting dancing games afterwards. I'm contemplating buying a dancing mat for my PS II - I rather suck at that game, though. But it's fun AND healthy! Then I declined to go out - I am getting old and frumpy. Is frumpy the right word? No. But it sounds like I feel at times. And now I'm watching a Doris Day movie. I am becoming my own grandma. Great. But I like Doris Day movies.

Oh, and I've been listening to my Maroon 5 CD all day which I really like.

Kids fly free on Ryanair! (Offer only valid today)

Spooky ride past Chernobyl

Goodlooking Co-Worker News

Will start in May.

Filled out a long questionnaire to blog here. Then decided questionnaires are stupid. Noone really reads them and the questions are sort of idiotic. Come on: "adidas or Nike? Chocolate or vanilla?" - What does this tell you about the person filling out the thing? Nothing. So I quit and deleted the whole thing.

Still cranky.

Yesterday I was amazingly tired - I couldn't really sleep while in England. Neither did it work here. Maybe it's the summer time that's messing with my head. I wonder why I always wake up at 7:30 in the morning fresh as a daisy ON THE WEEKEND but am dead tired every morning when I have to go to work and have to hit the snooze button five times in a row.

So, how was my trip? It was fun. We went to a couple of museums, went shopping and I got a hat for the wedding. And a hat just so which is stripey blue and white. But I discovered that I have no interest in flowers whatsoever - my mom really likes flowers and kept on tallking about them. There's only so much one can say about flowers in my opinion.

And I ate a lot. English metabolism must be a lot different from ours - I felt myself ballooning up just looking at the food. Anyway, I bought some to bring with me. "Some" being a rather loose term - my suitcase weighed a mere 22.6 kg.

Now I'm back home and spring is upon us. I don't know whether that's good or bad. I wish I could say more but lately my head seems to be rather empty. At work I don't have a lot to do and try my best to concentrate but it feels really hard. Yesterday we had a really goodlooking guy apply to replace my pregnant colleague. He'll tell us if he wants to start with us tomorrow. I don't know whether that's good or bad either. Easy on the eyes for sure and seems nice as well but also really ambitious which means I'll not have anything to do in the future but teeny tiny little projects. Then again, I guess that'll be the case no matter who we hire.

I'm a little bit cranky, too - for the usual reasons which I vowed not to whine about anymore and because my jaw hurts for undisclosed reasons.

Anything else at the moment? I read Life of Pi which is quite good. Haven't gotten to finish Middlesex yet and feel sort of guilty because I have so many books to read and so little urge to read them. Middlesex I actually DO want to finish but I'm afraid I can't pay it the attention it deserves. Virgin Suicides is in line there as well but I'm gloomy anyway and would rather read something chipper. Life of Pi didn't quite qualify as "chipper". No, indeed it didn't.

Just watching Scrubs and the translation isn't really what it could be. I think I should go and have some English cheese now. Cheese is always good. Just like coffee.

That and I've just heard of Stalinworld. Wowza.

Well, I'm back and I'll tell you all about my trip and everything tonight (don't want to be responsible for anybody's death). Just wanted to tell you that Sir Peter Ustinov died which makes me rather sad.

Closed until further notice

I'm going to London until Sunday. Then I'll think about whether I'll want to open this back up. Am tending towards just letting it die, though.

Crash Test

Question: What's more robust than a Smart?

Answer: My roommate's leg.

Weekend Update

Hobbled to work on Friday where everybody laughed at my pizza story. Left work early (which had nothing to do with everybody laughing but I just thought it was worth a mention) and went to dinner with my parents and my brother and his intended. Mental Note: Greek restaurants make you really unpopular if you eat ALL the tsatsiki AND the onions available. Vegged out on the couch in a haze of garlic for the rest of the evening.

Saturday: Spent loads of money on food. Remembered today that I am leaving for England in three days and am not going to have time to eat it all. Then I watched Donnie Darko which I highly recommend - it's weird and good. Good because it's weird? Maybe. It features somebody hallucinating a scary rabbit named Frank (boy, was I afraid of Frank):



Has a really convoluted plot (the film, not the rabbit) and I'd appreciate it if somebody else would watch the movie so I could discuss it. In the evening, Ulisch came over and we made Cosmopolitans:



Then we went out and discussed things that two women discuss when they're on their own: Shoes (of course). Among other things. Which was fun. Left me a little bit under the weather, though, which is why this might be not as coherent as it could be.

Today: Why is it that when I go to watch a football match it always ends up being really terrible? Might have to do with the protagonists. I caught myself having the blasphemous thought that being a fan of the OTHER LOCAL team would at least lead to watching an enjoyable match once in a while. Nuff said. It was that bad. Now I am back on the couch feeling tired. Tomorrow I have to go to a presentation where I am supposed to look "sleek, smart and stylish" as my boss put it. I am feeling like neither. Sometimes I wish I was more sleek, smart and stylish. Well, this, too, shall pass.

Stupid is...

...as stupid does. I'll give you a top tip that hopefully will be useful in your everyday lives. When you're on the phone, don't cut the pizza that you've just taken out of the oven. It might just drop onto your foot. With the cheese down. Ouch!! Double ouch!! Anyway, not a good idea.

Reserve Your Spot in the Handbasket

To announce your religious feelings, you might want to go see The passion of the Christ tomorrow. Or you could play Jesus Dress Up!

Wibble.

I'm thinking about emigrating to Australia. I think I might like it there. Then again, I've never been there before, what if I don't? Maybe I should try getting a temporary job. I reckon that's rather hard. I'll look into the matter.

I have this theory: when somebody says they won't blog or that they'll take a break for a couple of days or so, they usually blog more often. Seeing that I'm writing the second entry today while having planned not to, I guess that supports that theory. Dunno why, though.

Anyway. I just wanted to share that I just went to a party of a friend of mine. And men kept talking to me. But I found out that I am thoroughly bored by party conversations. It was rather exhausting talking to those people and I'm afraid I probably wasn't any fun to talk to either: "So how do you know X?" "Used to live together." "Hot here, isn't it?" "Yep." I'd rather stand around, sip my cocktail and watch people. How on earth can you think putting plastic flowers on your head will make you more attractive??? What goes on in somebody's head standing in front of the mirror, propping those things in her hair and around her (enormous) cleavage?? Just can't fathom it. Also the guy in the white satin pants with the underwear with black and grey stripes. Kept pulling the underwear up and the pants down. Why??? WHY FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST???

Anyway again, not really a success partywise - maybe I'm really getting to old for this. At least I can proudly present the celebrity-sighting of the day: When we came out of the location a car stopped and a woman exited it. Looked like a 'ho to me..short short skirt, high high boots and I thought: "Well, why did the guy still drive the car, I guess he must be rather drunk to pick HER up in a club somewhere." On closer inspection, the guy turned out to be Olli Kahn. Drunk or not is anybody's guess. Glared at me in any case. Oh well.

Interrupting this blog for a quick public announcement...ALERT!! ALERT!!! Hordes of gigantic crabs on their way to invade Europe!!! RUN FOR COVER!! SEAL YOUR DOORS!!! PREPARE THE GIGANTIC COOKING POTS!!!

NITMSYAOM*

*Not In The Mood - See You All On Monday

I am determined to put my time to good use and learn about geography. And I vow to play games on this site until I get more points than 20 when finding European countries on a map. God, do I suck at geography.

This is going to be about football so if you're not interested please disregard until you get to the exclamation points.

Bayern München suxx0rz

Lost. They lost against Real Madrid. Oliver Kahn is on TV at the moment saying it was all "tough luck". I guess luck is when you can't get the ball to go into the goal. Skill is when you do. Strange thing is it doesn't make me happy. I'd have preferred a German team in the Champions League, hard to get interested in only Spanish or Italian teams. Finale will probably be Real vs. La Coruna (damn me if I want to try and put the wiggly thing ~ over the n. What's the wiggly thing called anyway? I know that this & is an ampersand. And I even know an interrobang which I can't type here either ?!. But the wiggly thing ~ eludes me.) Anyhow, the only time I want Bayern to win, they lose. Figures.

1860 München suxx0rz

Had to do it. They didn't really exceed any expectations on Sunday and now our president has gone and bought himself a stadium for 2,8 Mio. Euro. This will also buy you 5 years of jailtime which isn't really a lot if you think about it. Maybe I should announce that I am corrupt. Hey, investors! Please give me money and I'll ... umm ... I'll ... I'll give you inside information into my company. Well, I guess that's the reason why nobody has approached me yet.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <--senseless exclamation points

Whatever. My suspicion that deep in my heart I am not a friendly person continues. I really don't like my intern. He's sooooo slooooo, has this really thick accent, looks at me like a sheep through thick glasses and he smells funny. I am sorry. He's really trying to be nice but I just can't abide to be in the same room with him for very long. My other intern is lazy as hell and also somewhat stupid but at least able to control her accent and she doesn't smell bad.

Maybe I smell bad myself and don't realize it??? The other day I made a joke about smelling reasonably well and it received a rather lukewarm reception. Then again the joke wasn't as funny as it could be. Then again, today I apparently smelled like garlic and didn't notice it. Could have suspected as much as I made myself really really hot spaghetti sauce yesterday using two garlic cloves.

Sometimes I wonder how objective you are when you think about yourself. Usually, one has a certain self-perception but for some things you kind of have to rely on other people's opinion.

looking for merz ... paging merz ... will merz please come to the phone

please mr and mrs amazon, when you offer me that "listen to the song" option, won't you PLEASE make it work just once? it's never worked so far.

This is what I am talking about.

So I'm sitting here wondering how everybody else does their work. I always have the feeling that I have no idea what I'm doing and just improvising things. Is this normal? I really would prefer a job that wouldn't include a) numbers b) a telephone. Don't get me wrong, in general I enjoy my job but I just suck at calculating stuff and organizing things (which is probably why I haven't done my taxes yet). Multivariate analysiseseses make me especially uncomfortable. Couldn't stand those when writing my thesis paper, can't stand them now. Unfortunately, I've garnered a reputation of being good with numbers. How, I can't fathom but there it is.

That and I've progressed to the point where I am simultaneously drinking coffee AND tea just because.

Lego-Mon



Wanna be lego too? Go here.

Since I'm boring, here's three links to keep you company while I try to come up with more exciting stuff than the sex life of my cats (they don't have any. seem familiar?):

Connect-a-bone. It'll wave at you, if you do.

Quiz where I could have gotten all answers correct if it weren't for geography. As is, I got 16 out of 20. Go ahead, quiz away.

Or spin some words for your next business meeting.

The Exorcist in 30 seconds with bunnies.

*coughcough

"The cold that won't leave" - I am calling dibs on that James Bond movie. Bleurgh.

*coughcough

Just saw Monster. It sucked. If you want to see what Charlize Theron looks like with latex on her mug, just look at some production stills. That takes less time than sitting through that awful long made-for-TV-movie. And then go watch yourselves some Autopsy. That's some good shit right there, man. <-- I can do "Crazy Prostitute" if I want to, so there. Don't need no latex. No sirree Bob.

Seriously, it's not that well acted, the story is boring as hell and for Chrissakes it had an end title that said: "Whatshername was executed on insertdatehere." I hate end titles. If you can't tell me through images, don't bother telling me at all. Why do you need to tell me it's "A true story"? Is that mandatory if it is? Whatever the case may be, it's information the viewer surely does not need.

[offtopicrant]Sorry to ramble but that is a pet peeve of mine. Also unnecessary subtitles. Why must you show me Big Ben and then inform me in a subtitle that this is "London, England"? I don't need no stinkin' subtitles.[/offtopicrant]

Well, I'd have wished for some good old-fashioned torture instead. Blood and gore galore. People rising from the dead. Of course I am talking about the Jesus movie. Yay for floggings and crucifixion ("Only one cross per person"). Actually, I am interested in what Latin sounds like when spoken by a living person. Yes, I am geeky. Did the geek test today and came out 70% geek (it's the Star Trek phase, I am telling you. That and Latin featured really high on this test which is why I am remembering it now). Then again I did a Jock test, too and came out 30% Jock. Here it was the section about beer and talking about sports that got me back into the picture, I figure.

What am I rambling about? I should go to bed. It's late.

What's up, pussycat, whououou! (channeling Tom Jones today). Just discovered I am still wearing my bedsocks. I don't know whether I like being weird. Weird's definitely not as good as cute. Can I get a refund? Wouldn't that be great if you had a receipt of your birth and could go back to God (or whoever) and demand to be exchanged? *sigh* I guess weird is hard to shake off...

Fell asleep listening to Air which probably sums it up nicely. Woke up in a crappy mood (don't know whether that's Air-related). Hate it when my day starts that way. Everybody around me seems to be chipper, though. Hate that even more.

Didn't get around to my tea as the cat napped in my lap. Was a little edgy due to Franz Ferdinand, though. (The cat, that is, not me.) My verdict: Franz Ferdinand was OK but not really mindblowing. One of the songs is called "Auf Achse" but my jukebox program calls it "Auf Asche" which gave me pause to wonder for one second until I had checked the CD case. They ARE actually singing in German at one point (not during this song, though). Why? Nobody knows. Now for the tea and ...hmmm...I feel Air will be next.

Don't really know why eating the whole package of Choco Crossies didn't curb the sick feeling. Enjoyed "White Ladder" immensely. I think it was "Sail away" that I liked so much on the radio. Tea-time now and...Franz Ferdinand's the next choice.

Feel slightly sick because of the mozzarella sticks. But can report I love the new David Gray CD. Now on to the "White Ladder" one and to the Choco Crossies.

W00t!

I got a package of CDs today. OK, I paid for them, but nevermind, today they arrived. What did I get? I am naming them in the order that I am discovering them right now, so you get to share the unpacking experience with me...

• Muse "Absolution". Limited Edition it says on the cover. Incl. Bonus DVD it says...Yay! (I actually already own this CD but I did want the bonus DVD. That and it's one of the best CDs. Support the artist and all that.)
  
• Franz Ferdinand. Aptly titled "Franz Ferdinand". Don't quite know whether I'll like the thing, I liked one of their songs on Virgin radio. If I don't like it, you all may vie for my attention by showering me with appropriate gifts and I might bestow it on one of you.
  
• Outkast "Speakerboxx. Boy, does it feature lots of stickers on the cover. Grammy stars 2004. Smash hit Heya. Parental Advisory. I'll just shake it like a Polaroid picture and watch out for strong language, sexual and violent content.
  
• David Gray "A new day at midnight". Sort of ashamed about this one...once listened to a David Gray song and proclaimed to not quite like it. Also confused David Gray with Craig David. Anyway, this is Virgin radio's fault again, as I sniffled while a song was playing and thought: "Need to find out who sings this" ... as I don't know what album it's on, I am guessing the next item is...yepp
  
• David Gray "White Ladder". On sale at amazon, so I figured why not.
  
• Macy Gray "On how life is". Wanted to get that for ages. I remember sitting in a café where they only had that CD apparently because they kept playing it over and over. I was there all afternoon and I still really liked it after that. That and I always watch that stupid Jennifer Aniston movie with Jay Mohr (who really messed up Jerry Maguire, the bastard!) only because "I try" is its main song.
  
• Air "Moon Safari". Bought it because really, really on sale at amazon. If I don't like it, see above. But I am guessing everybody who likes it already owns it.

That's it for the CDs. Now I am going to bake my mozzarella sticks I bought at Tengelmann's and decide which CD I am going to listen to first...Yay again.

I feel rather boring. No interesting stories to tell, nothing happening, not even funny linkage. Oh well, at least I look good in a suit. Or so I think. (By the way, did you ever notice that "pretty ugly" is a strange combination of words? But I digress.) Had a business meeting at an advertising agency today and confirmed

Axiom 1: Secretaries at prestigious agencies MUST wear ridiculous clothing that reveals more than is necessary (sleeveless woolen shirt with extra sleeves - leaving the shoulders free to breathe the creative air)

but couldn't verify

Axiom 2: CEOs of ad agencies always wear black turtleneck sweaters and black-rimmed square glasses (didn't meet any).

Sincerely wish I would be able to sleep well once in a while.

God, I am so tired. Was sick on Friday so I couldn't really go out. Didn't really matter because the Schnitzel we had was so big nobody else wanted to go out either. Came home somewhat late, though and had NyQuil to tide me over the night. Yum, NyQuil.

On Saturday morning I countered the NyQuil effects with DayQuil (Yay, I loves me some DayQuil!) and went shopping. I wish they'd manufacture DayQuil here, as is I have a stuffy nose again. Had some beer in the evening which of course led to me not sleeping any during the night. Vegged on the couch and fell asleep in the afternoon (but only for an hour, then I woke up due to disconcerting dreams about pets - my roommate was watching "Animals looking for a new home")

And tonight we were watching the Oscars. Rather pointless, as LOTR received every award it was nominated for. It got so bad the award recipients couldn't hold all their gold statuettes anymore - we suggested they'd be provided with little shopping baskets.

Miscellaneous Oscar Stuff

Seems to be en vogue to attach a huge bow to your ass (not very flattering).

Charlize Theron definitely had applied too much self-tanning lotion and looked disconcertingly tan.

Jim Carrey has no hair and is not in the least bit funny.

Is Bob Hope dead or not??

Liv Tyler looks good even with glasses on, a stupid 60s hairstyle and an ugly dress.

Jamie Lee Curtis' boobs threatened to jump out of her dress at any second. Otherwise, she looked exactly like Annie Lennox.

All the nominated songs were BORING and involved harp-playing of some kind (except the weird French Cartoon song that involved drumming on a bicycle).

I liked the opening bit where Michael Moore was squashed by an Oliphaunt.

We hate Vanessa Paradis. Why?? Why?? (Then again, I still want to marry John Cusack. Did you see how he winked at me?)


Anyway. Watched that until 6 am and then went to work, honest soul that I am. I can't call in sick when I am not. Boo. Which is why I am on my third cup of coffee, trying to stay awake. Where's the DayQuil when you need it??

By dose is stuffy.

(...and my teeth are shiny...lalala) <-- I told you I was braindead. Frank Zappa has taken over.

But I have stuff to do and places to go and will ignore that I am sick and spread my bacteriae all around *cough, sniff*

On a more pleasant note: I bought a truckload of CDs. (Pleasant depending on my ears' viewpoint, not my wallet's) Yesterday I went CD shopping because I felt like looking at the things I wanted to buy (amazon is too virtual sometimes) - but I was sorely disappointed.

They didn't have most of the CDs I wanted and those they did have were WAY more expensive than at amazon. (WAY meaning more than four Euros in one case). So I caved in and this morning sent off my order to the Amazon Gods. Yes, I am paying some people's salary. All by myself. If you have bread on the table, Mr and Mrs Amazon, it's me who put it there! Anyway, maybe it's stupid to buy CDs, I never ever listen to CDs and I could get half of the CDs I ordered copied by somebody else. Then again, I tend to lose copied CDs instantly or use them as coasters - they never last long. I lost both my Coldplay CDs AND my Muse CD - and I loved those. I only have The Strokes left because I never listened to it. Don't like The Strokes for some reason. Maybe I'd need to listen to it for some time. But I always have to think about their video and I hated them on sight. Bleurgh. Same with the White Stripes. Go away with your White Stripes album. I'm not listening to it.

But back to the subjects of CDs: Open the case, look at the booklet, read the song titles, pop it into the player on "Intro scan" and I am all around happy. Then I put the CD into "Benno", my trusty IKEA CD storage thingy and I never touch it again. Sometimes I discover one missing and am peeved. Like my Best of U2. If you have it you better slip it back into its little case secretly because if I catch you doing it I'll rip your head off. Or something. And while you're at it, take back your Jewel CD, because I sure as hell don't need two of those.

Hmm...maybe I should look through all my CDs and sell those I don't want on amazon so my expenses are covered...good plan, my man. I'll do that on Sunday. So here's the plan for my weekend:

Friday. Eat Schnitzel. Then go out. Cough a lot.
Saturday. Check if still alive. Go have breakfast. Shop. Meet the online soccer people (maybe - haven't heard anything so far). Cough some more. Go to birthday party (maybe - haven't heard anything so far) Gee, why is it that people wait until the last second to tell you when and where they are meeting?
Sunday. Check again, if still alive. Lie in bed and wait for better times. Sort CDs and sell stuff on amazon. Sneeze AND cough at the same time. Good times.

Stupid little game. Anonymous people with runny noses and slow reflexes last 11 seconds on this.

Colds

Colds are the stupidest illnesses ever. I mean, they hardly count as illness. If you have leprosy or if a crocodile bit your leg off, you get to call in and have everybody say: "Now SHE's really sick.". "I have a cold" on the other hand sounds really pathetic. You can't stay at home, because you're not really sick, but at work you're of no use whatsoever as your eyes threaten to pop out at any given moment and from your nose on upwards there's only a big sign: "Brain over".

beep beep beep beep

Great. I think I am getting sick. Just when my boss is back and wants to go over things with me I feel like a truck drove over me and can hardly keep my eyes open or concentrate. Gah. My head hurts, too. I want to go home and go to bed. But I can't, I have a date tonight with a friend who's leaving town. And tomorrow A. will arrive here. And on Friday I need to help a colleague with her computer. And on Saturday I have two engagements. I don't have time to be sick now. Why wasn't I sick the last three days when there was nothing to do and I just stayed home???

That and Real didn't win yesterday. Crap.

Bring your towel, just in case. And I want it to officially go on record that I love Sam Rockwell. If you haven't seen Galaxy Quest, you should. And By Grabthar's hammer, by the sons of Worvan, you shall be avenged.

Strange things are afoot...I feel like listening to The Darkness. What is happening? Surely the apocalypse must be nigh.

Interns

Mon: "Here's money, please go out and buy some stuff to put in the company fridge for next week. We're six people, so you might want to buy some lunch meat, cheese, fruit or something."
Intern: "OK."

So what's in our fridge now?

1 pack of salami
4 yoghurts

Hmmmmm.

I don't like bowling. Throw a ball, hit a pin. Throw a ball, don't hit a pin. Boy, how exciting. Yawn. Pretty expensive too. Bad food. Unfriendly service. Eye-popping decor. Apparently, everybody else likes bowling, though.

Thought of the day

The other day, somebody asked me why I wrote things on my blog. And I couldn't quite explain. "Is it the comments?" No. "Then why do you not just use a Word file and save your thoughts on the hard disk?" Well...I didn't quite know.

Today I thought about that again (I was out dancing with myself thinking all the while - I tend to do that). And I came up with a reason. Don't know if it's any good - it only contains four beers, though. It's not really original, though. Basically, it's like this: Lots of thoughts ramble through one's brain - usually pretty incoherently. Sometimes you ponder them for a while, sometimes you let them go. And sometimes you feel like writing them down so you don't forget. Now you can write those into your diary. But that's basically the same as keeping them in your head, only more organized. Of course organizing your thoughts is also a bonus of blogging, because if you want to write about something you actually need to think it through. To put vague thoughts to paper (virtual or not) usually requires some effort. With a diary, all that effort is basically wasted on oneself.

If you write thoughts down and publish them, though, it's like you release them to the world. That means you can share good thoughts and get rid of the bad thoughts. Which is probably why people (including me) tend to complain a lot on their blog. If you release a problem it's no longer yours alone. I guess some people actually do that to get comments - people telling them: "oh, it's not so bad - look at XYZ". Comfort and all that. But I think the act of telling alone relieves pretty much of the tension (if tension is the right word for it - it's more like not being alone in thinking about things).

Also, sharing your thoughts probably makes you feel less insignificant. You wrote something that people might like to read. In my case, it's actually not that important that someone actually does (though I like checking my stats file and I do appreciate comments). It's more important that someone MIGHT read them if they wanted to. If I just wrote them down for myself I could just as well let it be.

To get to the point where that's not really original - it's like a Pensieve. Put your thoughts out there - sometimes they get clearer, sometimes you get feedback, sometimes you don't. (Though a Pensieve is more like a diary as other people aren't really supposed to root around in it.)

Of course, sometimes I just write things to let people know or to actually elicit comments or to share something I found or just to blab about my day - or whatever. Can't attach deep meaning to everything I do. Most of the time it's probably crap. But then again, deep, meaningful moments are scarce in life anyway. And some I don't feel like publishing, some I do. Some people read, some they don't. Some get commented on, some just float around with not much attention directed towards them. Such is life. Does that make sense? It did somewhat when I was out there on the dance floor.

O2 can do indeed

Watching "German Pop Idol". Commercial break. Dieter Bohlen says: Text message this number and you'll get free pizza. Text message sent. Free pizza delivered. Joy and happiness all around!

   

Happy Birthday, HeWhoDoesNotWishToBeNamed^TM

Vroom, vroom!! Take this you stupid swedish cockatoo!! Vrooooooom!!!

Sleeping Beauty

I am kind of worried because I am so tired all the time. I constantly fall asleep even in the unlikeliest of situations. Once I fell asleep on the couch while somebody was visiting us (sorry, K.), once I fell asleep while I was talking to somebody on the net (sorry, P.) and yesterday I barely managed to hang up the phone before I fell asleep (sorry, A., was I getting incoherent?). Wasn't the phone call that tired me for sure, because that was rather interesting and showed me there's worse things than cats peeing all over your room...

Anyway. I sincerely hope it has nothing to do with the thyroid as I can't go to my thyroid doctor anymore. He only takes patients with private insurance. And I am not allowed in the private insurance anymore as I don't earn enough money. Honestly, this pisses me off, too. If I want to pay an assload of money for private insurance, why is it the state's business to say that I can't? Now I have to pay the public insurance, the stupid fee for visiting the doctor AND money for private additional insurance AND money, to ensure I ever get back into the private insurance. (They wouldn't take me again if I didn't keep my spot, as my thyroid condition won't pass their entrance health test). Which also adds to an assload of money minus the cushiony comfort that is private insurance. Bleh.

Keeping myself awake through loads of coffee. Maybe I should just drink gallons of the stuff. Yum. C-O-F-F-E-E. It's the nectar of gods. Or something.

At least I can look forward to next week when I was promised a visit from somebody I haven't seen in a long time *dances the dance of meeting old friends* Yay!!

If you enjoy playing RPGs, you might also enjoy the Great List of Role-Playing-Games Clichés.

Escape from the CRIMSON ROOM!!!

Today I came home from work and discovered the cats had peed over everything in my room. Yikes! If you knew the state my room was in you know that was a ton of work. Then I got a call requesting my presence for a party. I declined politely with my hands full of cat piss and had to listen to be called unspontaneous. Unspontaneous my ass.

"You don't care about meeting your friends!" Hello?
"I am sorry, but I have to clean my room as my cats peed over everything."
"What cats?"

The cats I have had for a year now and if you cared about meeting your friends you'd know that. Dumbass. Pissed me off, that did.

Three hours later and my room is clean. Two more loads to go into the washer and the last traces of cat's urine will be gone. Phew. At least I have pictures to prove the state of my room in case it gets chaotic again. See and marvel at the wonder that is my floor:



That is all. Thank you very much.

Well, that was Valentine's Day. I went shopping and I wondered about the amount of flower shops that were open. Are there really that many men who buy flowers for their girlfriends/wives? Are there? Anyone? Anyone?? Bueller??? Note: Not to be meant as a criticism, I'm just wondering. Though women like to get flowers but rarely do. YMMV.

Other than that, I bought a gazillion of books. Here they are:



I've read one of them yesterday while soaking in the tub:Inger Alfvén: Vier Töchter. Didn't like it that much. I thought the mother was schizophrenic and pretended to be two people. After I was finished, I read the blurb and that said she actually had another daughter. Not her split personality. Duh. Maybe I'm just stupid, bit I think it was confusing and deliberately "psychological" which I hate. If you want it, drop me a note and I'll send it to you. For free. If there's another book of the above you're interested in, tell me as well, maybe I'll hate it and you can have it.

Today I am resolved to read the Trapp family's mother's autobiography (a lot of genitives in that sentence). Going to see a football game, too.

And I'll eat the rest of the food that I prepared in my wok. I really like my little wok - cooking in it is so easy. Found a good recipe site as well: www.leckerbisschen.de that features Thai recipes. I made Gäng Pad Gai (chicken curry with coconut milk). Yum. That was on Friday. We were supposed to get together and play games but somehow that never worked out. I vaguely had the feeling that my guests were expecting to get more entertainment than I provided. I sometimes get that and I don't really know what to do then and get cranky. Cranky's not good for entertainment, so I guess that's kind of a vicious circle.

But I am in rather a cranky mood (again) at the moment. I hope it'll pass sometime. I wonder where it came from. Maybe it's the aftermath from the questionnaire thing last week (don't ask). Maybe Ginger Ale works against that (I have a bottle in front of me, that's why I'm typing this, just stream-of-consciousness-typing that makes no real sense). Yesterday we used the Ginger Ale to produce fake Caipirinha which was quite good but didn't agree with my roommate. So I guess Valentine's Day was a mixed success.

How will the US afford a manned space mission? Find out here. (Curse Sahib Gates :)

Interesting Link by the BBC: Spot The Fake Smile. Had to learn this stuff for my exam - only got 13 out of 20, though.

And just in case you are "photoshopping" stuff, well, Adobe says you're not s'posed to.

Well, Hamburg. I got up on time (yay!) and went to the airport. Of course, the world had decided to further stomp onto my already frayed nerves by providing a huge snowstorm in Munich and a storm in Hamburg, so that I thought I wouldn't even survive to see my first "real" own project.

Did survive, though (which should be apparent from me posting here but I just like to hear me speak resp. see me type). Anyways. Arrived there late and took a taxi to the hotel. Of course, my cab driver was slightly crazy and started discussing the origin of the German language and especially the Bavarian dialect (which he claimed I didn't have).

Then work: of course everything went OK - preventive panic rocks. Then I went to have some sushi. I really like the conveyor belt thingies, cost me a fortune, though, but I considered it a celebration. Continued celebrating in the hotel with the best café latte I ever had (for only € 3 no less) and then felt somewhat lonely.

Usually I don't mind being single, but on Monday I had the feeling that I would have liked to call somebody to share. That and being in a hotel all alone triggered the feeling that I would have liked somebody to wish me a good night. Or something. Well, I called my roommate instead and sent some SMS. Friends are good :)

Sometimes I think I'm just not prepared for the real world. Tomorrow I have to go on my first business trip and nothing's like it's supposed to be. I haven't packed yet (yes, I know, I know, not surprised etc.) and I'm terrified something's going to go wrong.

I have to meet about 20 customers and I am imagining them to be an irate mob. I have to moderate a group discussion and I am worried to death about my timing. Then I have to set up remote e-mail contact with another customer and send them stuff about the group discussion - I imagine myself running through Hamburg trying to find an internet café that'll let me e-mail because something's not going to work out.

Ack! I really need to relax! My poor noives! Probably everything's going to progress smoothly but I'll stop sweating once I am at the airport.

Project "straying off the path of righteousness" isn't finished either...and I have to meet up with the people it concerns on Tuesday evening. No way I am going to have it done by then, my head is empty and my hand is lame. I'm terrified about that, too. Please make this week go away. Please. I promise I'll be really good.

And now I'll go and have a beer to stop my head from spinning.

See you all on Tuesday evening.

I don't really know why I am so dissatisfied with everything at the moment. I look out the window and the sun is shining and I feel like something ist missing and the days are just zipping by. Zippp...zippp....

Maybe it's because I don't really have a goal in life. I tried to substitute the marathon thing for it last year, but that didn't help really. I thought, once you'd done a marathon, somehow one's outlook on life would change magically. Well, it didn't. I was just really, really tired. Didn't feel like I'd really achieved anything. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Reminds me of the time I went parachute jumping and found it utterly boring. Maybe my adrenaline glands are just not working properly.

I'm actually considering climbing the Everest - I did the marathon because I really, really hate running. And the one thing I hate *more* than running is hiking. So climbing the Everest would be a huge task for me. (Can't just be the Zugspitze or something, no, must be the Everest). So far I'm just deterred by the huge amounts of preparation. That'll take years instead of the months the marathon did. Plus, it's really expensive. Not the climb itself - well, that, too, but also the preparation - I'd need to start slow with hiking, then progress to climbing, then try out a few mountains before I could take on the Everest. I'm bored but not stupid. OK, sometimes I feel stupid, too, but if I'd just travel to Himalaya, I'd be stupid and dead. Then again, I might die even *with* preparation. Have I mentioned I really, really hate hiking?

Hmmm...maybe I should just cross a busy street without looking left OR right.

I'd just like to take a moment to state that:

"Der Pokal hat seine eigenen Gesetze."

Thank you.

*gladly throws 5 € into the "Piggybank for stupid catchphrases"

Well, I found something to cheer myself up - there's people even stupider than I am. I found the cheer-up-link here on a Nederlandse blog of somebody who apparently enjoys the Dutch version of Pop Idol. What happened there is that they took the worst applicants, told them they were great and let them sing at the halftime show of a football game. A clip of which you can watch here.

First they show the candidates milling about talking Dutch...they should have gotten a clue just by watching the other stupid people. You can skip that, but be sure to tune back in when you see that little guy in the white shirt moonwalking and doing pirouettes. Amazingly funny - if a little taxing on the ears. And no, I don't care if it's inhuman to parade losers like these around. They signed up for it, they get what's coming to them. And I get to laugh. Ha, ha.

Today's not a good day. I feel fat, ugly and stupid (not necessarily in that order) and don't really know what the point is. What's the point?

Well, I've seen people turn green (my roommate after having a litre of banana milk shake), but I didn't know it was possible to turn blue. Scary that somebody would think drinking silver substitutes for antibiotics.

Why is it that when you are typing the word "banana", it's so hard to stop? Banananana.

Premiere sucks! I was looking forward to the Superbowl yesterday when we discovered we don't have the digital receiver needed to see it. Was insulted by a stupid call center employee and am somewhat pissed I didn't ask for his name to complain.

The game was pretty good, too, or so I hear (last two quarters at least). And there was Janet Jackson's boob and a streaker on the field during the halftime show. Oh boy!

Other news:

- Have a diploma now. Contains an error though and states I took "art pedagogics" (aka pottery therapy??) when I actually took forensic psychiatry and can now identify stalkers, pedophiles and anyone with a rubber fetish correctly.

- Went snowboarding on Saturday.

- Saw my first game of ice hockey on Sunday - unfortunately I was among all the rabid fans and couldn't ask questions like: why are all these people constantly jumping over the side of the rink? is it actually ALLOWED what HE's doing?? or the ever popular: which one's are ours??? (I waited until somebody scored and checked if everybody cheered, when they did, deduced this was our team)

Aye, the compass doesn’t point north but we’re not trying to find north, are we?

Yesterday I wasn't really feeling up to scratch. Nothing really happened, it was just one of those days where nothing goes quite right. First of all I had nothing really to do which I hate. I can't really understand how people could like jobs where they lounge about all day. I started feeling completely useless.

Then I had to call around negotiating things. And I'm really bad on the telephone. I kept forgetting to ask things and being pushed around and nothing worked out like it should have. The useless feeling mounted and mounted and when I went home I started thinking about all the things I should have done but haven't so far.

Now that's something I've had always had trouble with, I am Miss Procrastination herself. I just put my head in the sand and hope it will go away, whatever it is. Can't really bitch about it, too, because it's all my fault and I just need to get up off my lazy butt and DO things. Usually I just ignore that but on days like yesterday I feel like I am balancing a huge stack of porcelain cups and keep piling on and piling on and one day it'll all come crashing down on my head...

So yesterday I was feeling unbalanced and cranky. Still haven't quite recovered from that feeling and in addition my head feels empty and stupid. So there's nothing interesting I have to add to this blog today.

Mover and Shaker.

Weekend Update

a) Friday

Embarrassing day at the office. Not really horrible, but a good impression that didn't make, no, it did not. Plus, trouble with a client that I had to sort out, overall sucky.

Then I went and had pizza with M., T. and U. which calmed me down. That and the expensive Campari Orange. 5 Euros well invested, though. Afterwards we went to the movies and saw Mambo Italiano which was quite amusing - not very deep, sort of like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, only gay. Very fun over-the-top set decoration (BRIGHT COLOURS) and direction, a little bit overacting, but still OK and you can even take guys ("Two men kissssssssing, ewwww!") to see it as the gay relationship is not depicted in any graphic detail. If you didn't like "Greek Wedding", are offended by any stereotyping of ethnic communities (Italians, in that case), or can't stand to see gays in any movie, don't go. Otherwise I thought it quite enjoyable.

b) Saturday

Rather inexplicable bad mood. Finished Shipping News which I liked but would have rather read in English as I kept pondering the language, wondering how certain things had been translated which detracted from the overall reading experience. Went to Wal-Mart and was harrassed by people wearing training suits. Bought Pirates of the Caribbean. The cashier forgot to take it out of its little safety case, though, which vexed me greatly when I discovered it at home. Went to bed still grumbling.

c) Sunday, i.e. today

Had brunch with my parents and an experience with public transportation which made me remember why I always take the car. The brunch was at the airport restaurant. Now the trip back should have taken 40 minutes but we ended up in the train for almost two hours. First the train stood around at a station for ages. Then they announced they had trouble with the tracks and at each station we had to wait for the opposite train to pass on our track. Then they announced they had had a suicide warning and had to go real slow. That took the better part of an hour. And then they announced that they wouldn't stop at any more stops but go straight to the last stop. Hello? Where's the logic in that? I didn't particularly care as I had to go to the last stop but my parents needed to get out before, so they had to go to the last stop and then back. Yee-Haw! What fun!!

At least I got to start Middlesex and so far I really like it.

Went to work at the little safety case of the Pirates DVD using
1. a screwdriver
2. a little saw
3. a big-ass wrench
and managed to finally get it open. Arrrr!!

Had pasta and some wine. Life is good again.