iron and wine

..."the sun will rise

What if you were told that the sky would fall tomorrow night
Would you run and hide or go and play?
What if you were told that a boy named Cain was right outside
Would you run and hide or go and play?

A smile will bring a smile, a pail filled with rain
Your mothers milk will dry, the sun will rise again

What if you were told that your lover's hands were dead and cold
Would you run and hide or go and play?
And what if you were told the only point to life is to get old
Would you run and hide or go and play?

The sun will rise again and again and again"

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

tautological institutional claims

... make things even more complicated :(

As I am planning to enrol for theology so as to regain status as a student (rather than being an unemployed person), there are quite some things to be handled. For example, for my request of matriculation I need a certificate by my health insurance, stating that they actually are insuring my health. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, eh? Well, seems it should be!
As I called my health insurance company today they told me, in order to get said certificate, I have to send them an attestation that I am a student at the moment - which of course I am not.
So I am not allowed to become a student because I am no student?!
Forunately, the insurance company woman was very friendly and promised to send me an attestation of insurance, when I promised solemnly to send my certificate of matriculation as soon as I get it. Hopefully, everything will work out fine, seeing that the deadline for matricuation requests is next tuesday...

Why do I have to forever and always be short of time?!?

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

snow snow snow

... alrighty it's snowing out there.

no matter what the weather later will be like, I am so Not going by bike.
*shivers*

my fiancé is

... a graduate physicist!!!

Robert's defense was yesterday and it was a successful one. I am so proud of him and I was way more nervous than he was. We didn't celebrate yet, besides having a relaxed evening watching "Pretty Woman" on TV. But we're planning to have a night out at the end of the week.
So now, we are 99% moving to BCity in the course of this year. It will be strange to say goodbye to our old university town, full of wonderfull experiences and friends, and start a new phase of our lives in a completely unfamiliar city. We'll see how we manage...
This afternoon I'm meeting up with Franzl, whom I haven't seen since our concert at the end of January as she never seems to find the time to attend choir-meetings on Wednesdays.
I am thinking about going into town (where I'll meet Franzl) by bike, as it's wonderful out in the sun. On the other hand, some hours ago there was sleet on the balcony and the weather does look unsettled. I've still got some time left so we'll see...

For now:

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

if you ever wanted to

... learn the names of the presidents of the united stated but didn't know how:

here's to you one of my favourite youtube-videos, the presidents song!
Unfortunately, it was made before the election of Obama, but still, it shouldn't be hard to remember that there's 1 more of them. ;)
It's catchy and easy to learn - and you never know when you're going to need this knowledge... ;)

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting [/singing], and God bless you, my friend"

those books i read

... in 2008

a long way down - nick hornby - 4 suicidal strangers meet on the roof of a tower block on New Year's Eve and together find their ways back into their life. One of my all time favourites, I'm sure.
a spot of bother - mark haddon - A newly retired man in his late fifties discovers a lesion on is hip and quietly begins to lose hins mind. A really entertaining read, though unfortunately, with an equally abrupt ending as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time which is by the same author.
dämliche dämonen - royce buckingham - An orphaned boy guarding demons in an old Seattle house, left to him by his demonkeeper mentor, has to get back the most scary of the lot before it starts eating its way through town. More of an expended short story rather than a novel but still quite entertaining.
firmin - sam savage - The 1960's end of a Boston neighbourhood written from the perspective of a literate rat. A great idea and well realised.
harry potter and the deathly hallows - j.k. rowling - The final and concluding book of the series. A bit extensive in parts but as entertaining as most of the others, plus I liked the epilogue!
high fidelity - nick hornby - Mid-thirties former DJ is stuck in a really deep groove after breaking up with his last girlfriend and eventually starts asking himself the big questions of life and love. Full of musical references, funny and witty.
how to be good - nick hornby - A mid-thirties GP panics when her formerly misanthropic husband becomes a very good person overnight. Hilarious and yet thought-provoking.
imposture - benjamin markovits - A young woman falls in love with Lord Byron's personal doctor and almost double John Polidori, whom she mistakes for the famous poet, and thus getting him into the predicament of his lust for celebrity and the truth. Interesting and sad.
life on the refrigerator door - alice cuipers - Refrigerator door messages of a mother and daughter during a year of crisis. Touching and drawn from life (though not based on a true story).
mieses karma - david safier - Self-absorbed moderator is reincarnated as an ant and tries to gather enough good karma to ascent the ladder of reincarnation. Funny and entertaining.
slam - nick hornby - A 16 year old skater boy is suddenly facing a man's problems and trying to deal with them. Warm and moving, yet quite predictable.
the chameleon's shadow - minette walters - A bomb changes a young Officer's complexion and soul - but has it changed his personality enough to become a murderer? Thrilling, full of turnarounds and very entertaining. Maybe even better than The Dark Room.
the end of mr. y - scarlett thomas - Uncovering an exceedingly rare and potentially cursed copy of a book by an eccentric Victorian scientist, literature expert Ariel is swept into an adventure of love, sex, death and time-travel. Quaint, exciting and an ode to the life of mind.

Of course, these were accompanied by a number of books I reread, such as The Lord of the Rings, Stephen King's Der Fornit and The Girl who loved Tom Gordon, parts 1, 2, 3 and 5 of the Harry Potter series as well as more or less all books of Henning Mankell's Wallander series - all of which I can sincerely recommend.

Maybe you would enjoy one or two of those books, too! If I got you interested, just ask me and I'd love to lend them to you.

But for now

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

i want popcorn

... du du du dum du dum

That was this evenings topic =D
Meeting at Steph's place at eight in order to eat as much popcorn as volitional and managed - and bringing along some veggies so as to make it look like we're living healthy. And actually, we did eat those veggies! Though for two different reasons:
1. You just can't spend the whole evening with just dry, greased, sugared corn without getting a sugar rush.
2. We were three people and only two packages of popcorn - the first of which was utterly destroyed within 15 minutes of its making. You can do the maths for yourself =D
Whilst eating we had fun watching photos and little videos of choir-"events", most of which I hadn't seen, yet.
And as my stomach feels full to bursting right now, I think, I can officially say that I'm in no need for popcorn anymore in the near future. Veggie sticks I'm coming! Yay!

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

changes

... make life worth living

Today, I decided to finally change my hairstyle - something I had planned to do for quite some time already. So I went to the hairdresser, had to wait about 15 minutes and then spent three quarters of an hour having my hair combed, smoothed out and cut, one strand at a time. And then over and over again. Until, finally, the hairdresser was satisfied and I was pleased.
All in all it's a wee bit longer than I had originally planned but maybe this canges according to the way I treat my hair. I've got some interesting "experiments" ahead of me ;D
So, all in all, a worthwhile expenditure.

A photo might follow within the next few days.

For now:

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

musical input

... is what I need!

Searching the web for some pastime today, I found that there must be millions of bands and musicians that I've never heard anything of. And even those I do know are mostly incomplete. That's why I decided to broaden my horizon and ask you as my readers for tips on music!
Originally, I wanted to subsequently list all musicians and bands I know, so you would have an idea about what I already listen to. But I decided to just let you tell me whatever you think I might like.
Sooo:
Please tell me what bands and musicians you like and I might like as well!!!
Just write a comment (you will find the comment function right underneath the "article") and tell me :)

For now

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

"old absolutely doesn't mean

... right.

I don't care how old your tradition is,
Or how old your belief is,
Or how socially accepted it is.
Old absolutely doesn't mean right.
It's not cool to eat a tiger.
It's not brave to hunt whales.
It's not spiritual to drink bear gall bladder.
It's not clever to hang a deer head on your wall.
It's not a public service to kill sharks.
It's not patriotic to club seals.
No matter how sanctioned or revered it is.
It's violent and it's ugly and it's soulless.
Just like slavery,
And child labour,
And police brutality,
And genital mutilation,
And ethnic cleansing,
And lynching,
And torture,
And rape,
And military dictatorships,
And Holy wars,
They're old, too.
Old absolutely doesn't mean right."

- unknown -

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

maybe we're still awake then!

... tomorrow at 8'25 a.m....

Today we had a do-nothing-but-fun-stuff day, more or less. We slept until past 1p.m. - hence the quote above - and whilst I went to return yesterday's DVD (Burn After Reading) and get our weekend shopping, Robert did the washing up. Then we had lunch (at about 4p.m.) and watched a bit of TV. Almost 3 hours ago, Robert decided to play a computer game and I decided to do nothing. We have both been quite successful, since. :D
As Robert is working in the stadium tomorrow and I've got nothing much to do, I might go on a little bike tour - my first this year. But I will have to see how the weather is.

so for now

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

"the only way out

... is through
the faster we're in, the better
the only way out is through, ultimately
the only way out is through
the only way we'll feel better
the only way out is through, ultimately!"

I must admit, it took me quite a while to see the truth behind those lyrics. And, still, I am unsure whether I want them to be true.
Waiting, and hoping things might change, things might vanish. That is so much easier. Safer.
Procrastinators of the world unite ... tomorrow!
But waiting is boring, too, and it's stressing you out. It gives you a much better feeling when things are, ultimately, happening!
You just need to have the heart to make things happen.
Get going and do the things that have to be done. You will feel much better afterwards.


Don't wonder at this post - I'm mostly talking to myself...

"from all uf us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

today my friends

... is the world day against cyber-censorship!

I think this gives good reason for everyone to consider censorship and its pros and cons.
"Pros?" you might ask. Do I want to be told which informatin to get, which texts to read and which photographies to see? Certainly not!
On the other hand, censorship prevents the circulation and spread of immoral contents such as child pornography or pro-nazi ideas. And who of you wouldn't want to put a stop to those?
Unfortunately, "immoral content" is a matter of opinion. And who should be the one to decide about it? Governments? Religions? Impartial experts? Everybody for themselves?
Censorship is related to questions of individual freedom, legal capacities, self-protection, the protection of vulnerable others, fears, trust and ultimately a person's position within society and world.
Go get thinking about it. Find your own point of view and compare it to those of others. It might just deliver you a new insight on who you are.

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

though shallst not

... eat spaghetti with butter and cinnamon in close proximity to thine laptop!
Otherwise the laptop will be splattered with butter and you will have to spend half an hour cleaning it up. Just as I did this afternoon.

... brew thine coffee stronger than thine heart is!
Otherwise your heart is going to flutter and you will feel like it is trying to break out of your chest. Quite like mine did today.

... stay up until past 4 am!
Otherwise you will be tired and restless and might have a bit of a stomach ache all day. Which describes my own condition rather well.

Nevertheless, I spend a pleasant day.
I went to the Brummels and got an update on Mrs. B's life. What a woman! Never stands still for one minute, she does! We agreed on me coming back for the summer time and I am very, very happy about it. I hope everything will work out fine.
After missing the next train back into town I spend my time of waiting with drawing up a to-do list for the next few days. Quite some steep hills ahead of me... When I finally got into town I met up Robert and together we finished his diploma thesis. It's done!!!
Tomorrow he is going to BCity by train (poor bloke has to get up at 5!) to get in touch with his potential new doctoral adviser and working group. He's got to give a presentation on his thesis and I think he will do alright.
Unfortunately, due to finishing the paper - and having to print out three copies - we didn't manage to join the choir-crowd at the k2. It was just way too late and Robert was particularly tired (easily understood).

Now, as I am quite tired, too, I will follow the third "commandment" of today and go to bed.
So until next time:

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

when people get creative

... and by people I mean myself. ^^

About a week ago I found a gaming page online. The games are numerous and diverting but the most interesting part of that website is Sketch Star - a program to create animations.
You get up to 100 blank pages, colour them in a typical online-colour-game fashion and you get a flip-book or even a cartoon! (depending on how many pages you colour how accurately...)

My first animations were mostly about colours and recurring patterns. And my favourite of those is:
the clock.



It's a bit psychedelic after a while but I really enjoyed making it.
So, if you've got some spare time go and get creative! Make your own cartoon!

I am happy that this time my favourite goodbye does actually make sense:

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting and, God bless you, my friend"

billions of billiard balls and a blindtextgenerator

Billiards is just not my game.
However often you prod those stupid little balls with your disobedient cue - they never seem to get fewer! Admittedly, this might be due to the fact that you start a new game every 15 minutes and all the balls you did manage to put off the pool table are put back on it... But nevertheless!
Actually, I had a good evening with beloved friends and I wouldn't want to spoil it with negativ comments on billiard. I just don't like loosing continually and do hope to stay away from pool tables in the near future.

Besides a billiard-filled evening I spend most of my time today on the internet.
And I found an interesting device - the "Blindtextgenerator", a filler text generator.
For all those who don't know what a filler text is (half an hour ago I was one of you!):
It is a randomly generated text with the characteristics of a real written text and is used to stand in for a part of a work that is not yet written but so you can display a layout or at least a sample of fonts. Some of those texts are long, like a paragraph, e.g. "Lorem ipsum" (see here for the original text). Others are as short as one sentence and contain all letters of their respective alphabet (=pangram), e.g. "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
So, to whom besides layouters might this be interesting?
Basically everyone who has to wright texts!
Whenever you have space to fill or want to see how things might look in the end, this is where the Blindtextgenerator comes into operation.
Of course, there are more than just one of those generators on the internet but the following one has translations of many languages: lipsum.com.
Use it! 'tis helpful!

for now

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"

in all beginnings dwells a magic boredom

... or something along those lines.
I can tell you, being unemployed means 3 things:

• boredom
• so much boredom that you start to clean your flat on a daily basis
  
• even more boredom

And you start to do a lot of things to fight this boredom. Like reading blogs of people you don't know. And starting to think it might be a good idea to write a blog yourself. No matter how few things of interest there might be in your life.
Well, i'll have a try to be more adventurous in the days and weeks to come, so I might be able to write something interesting.

If you're interested in where my idea of writing a blog comes from:
http://trekkingwithtigers.blogspot.com/


But for now, I shall quote dear old Bob Ross

"from all of us here, we wish you a happy painting, and God bless you, my friend"