Goodness gracious me

Best Letter of Complaint

2008-01-20T10:17:00.000-06:00

Below is a copy of a letter that won a competition in UK as complaint letter of the year...have a laugh and
read on.

Complaint Letter of the Year. The British do have a way with words.... A real-life customer complaint
letter sent to NTL (to their complaints dept....)

Dear Cretins,
I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for
your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone. During this
three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had
not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity
of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details,
so that you can either pursue your professional perogative, and seek to
rectify these difficulties - or more likely (I suspect) so that you can
have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working
day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office:
My initial installation was cancelled without warning, resulting in my
spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your
technician to arrive. When he did not arrive, I spent a further 57
minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more
annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful
website....HOW?
I alleviated the boredom by playing with my testicles for a few minutes
- an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.
The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later,
although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools -
such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum. Two weeks later, my cable modem
had still not arrived. After 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks my modem
arrived... six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it.
I estimate your internet server's downtime is roughly 35%... hours
between about 6pm -midnight, Mon-Fri, and most of the weekend. I am
still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 calls on my
mobile to your no-help line, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a
variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly
skilled bollock jugglers.
I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone
will call me back); that no telephone line is available (and someone
will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows
whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off);
that I will be transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an
answer machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be
transferred to someone and then been redirected to the irritating
Scottish robot woman...and several other variations on this theme.
Doubtless you are no longer reading this letter, as you have at least a
thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of
those crucially important testicle-moments to attend to. Frankly I don't
care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustration's
in print than to shout them at your unending hold music. Forgive me,
therefore, if I continue.
I thought BT were shit, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of godawful
customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more
disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to
their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't
anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered
to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless
shower of bastards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of
distended rectum incompetents of the highest order.
British Telecom - wankers though they are - shine like brilliant beacons
of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless
inadequacy. Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and
foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that
you cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for
the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to
deliver - any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and
disbelief quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused
rage. I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my
cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for
both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not
become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the
time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did
not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them
the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and its worthless
employees.
Have a nice day - may it be the last in you miserable short life, you
irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twats.

John

As time goes by...

2008-01-17T09:53:00.000-06:00

Many things have changed over the last few months.
First of all, I am a fully-fledged teacher since November 2007 which I still have not really realized. It is a quite good feeling to have passed the ridiculous high amount number of tests / exams / years of study to become a teacher here in Germany. We're now in 2008 - one decade ago, I took up my studies. That's ten years of education, education, education. And what for? To start working at a comprehensive school where the proficiency level is so low that you could easily have done the job right after the Abitur. I am not sure whom to blame for the low achievements. Is it the teachers' fault, because they don't challenge their students enough or they don't know how to discipline the students enough and get them working - or are the students really unable to bring about better results?
Apart from the low achievements and the sometimes annoying, loud, mannerless students...I feel comfortable in the job and at the school. That's good.
Besides my job, there are already some good prospects for this year.
1. I have booked my next flight ticket to Thailand.
2. I have taken up my Thai studies again and am currently learning the letters (I need about 2 hours for three letters...)
3. I bought myself a digital mirror reflex camera
4. I will move back to the Bonn / Cologne area in a few months
and
5. I found an excellent Thai temple not too far from my place, where Buddhist festivals take place on a fairly regular basis.

Last but not least, I am determined to practise more English and to broaden my general knowledge, starting with Britney Spears's current mental crisis...

So long....

2007-10-05T14:16:00.001-06:00

"Curver"-container exploded during first attempt to cook Thai

2007-07-28T14:35:00.000-06:00

"Everything is impermanent", say the Buddhists. And so is my "Curver"-container (similar to Tupperware).
After having watched several videos on Thai cooking at youtube.com today, I decided to give it a try myself. The big advantage of videos in comparison to books is that you can actually observe the whole cooking procedure. Makes it easier to avoid mistakes.
Thus, highly enthusiastic and looking forward to my delicious Thai dessert tomorrow(sticky rice dessert), I started cooking around 9 pm (didn't get very far though).
I love sticky rice and I was quite surprised to hear that you do not have to soak it for a couple of hours as I always used to do. It is enough to leave it for 20 minutes in water, rinse the water but leave enough to microwave the rice in the following for about 10 minutes.
Quick and easy. Good news for me!

I made a very good start: the soaking went well! No problems (well, ok, I could have taken a larger bowl, but apart from that, no problems).
Then, I put the rice into the "Curver" container and closed the lid, which already seemed a bit odd to me, because as far as I know, the microwave heats up from inside and thus causing a big pressure if the air cannot exhaust anywhere. I remember what happens to "Super Dickmann's"

when you try to microwave them.

However - I trusted the Thai cook as she was the expert! So I closed the lid, set the clock on 10 minutes and started the microwave on full power (about 800 watt). After about 3 minutes I heard the first plopp. The lid popped up.
"Well", I thought "I knew this could never work. But well...now that the lid is open, everything will be fine. Yummy sticky rice is about to be ready soon!"

Instead of waiting in front of the microwave, staring into the window which - as mum always said - is not good for my eyes, I decided to go and brush my teeth in the meantime.
Being in the bath, I heard another plopp. This made me think...My feeling and the smell which did not come from my incense stick, made me go to the microwave and STARE INTO THE WINDOW.

Now that was fun. I could not at all remember having used my black sticky rice...

But this was not all. When I wanted to get the container with the burned rice out of the microwave, I got to know that it had actually melted and was glued to the microwave...The bottom was a big whole, the rice was black and reminded me of a brick. I assume, I could menace students with it if they do not do their homework properly ("Teacher throws sticky rice at student. Student dies!").

I wished I had a digicam on hand - I should post a picture to you AND THE THAI cook.
However, I still wanted to have this nice dessert and having destroyed one good container already (which is a big loss for me, because living in my first own appartement, I hardly have any kitchen utensils), why not giving it another try ;) .

The second time (400 Watt, 4 minutes) worked! :)
And my "curver"-box is the best example for the impermanence of things. As a monk once taught me: "Imagine you have a nice cup. Consider it as being broken right from the beginning, because once it breaks, you do not suffer from the loss."
So be it....

Nun or no nun, that is the question

2007-07-26T03:25:00.000-06:00

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post and many things happened in the meantime.

First of all, I turned 29 years *wooohh*...old..However, I do not fall into midlife crisis or anything like that. At least not since "Dove" have produced "pro age" products. I belong to the type of women who become older without regrets and who associate age with growing wisdom, knowledge, life experience, INCOME, inner stability, growing fat depots that don't matter because nobody expects a women with kids to have a slim figure (the best thing is: I do not have kids, but growing fat is still allowed...) - become unattractive is widely accepted. It is nearly a have-to! Women who are in their 40ies and still try to look like 20 are considered to have little self-confidence and superficial. I am not like that. I am fully aware that wrinkles are to come soon. My hair has started to fall out a year ago already. But I don't care. I am prepared to get old. I know, I can do it. I will survive. Yeah me.

Second very important point to mention is my new flatmate. We get on quite well. He is easy to handle, that's what I like. The only disadvantage is that he keeps me quite busy so that I do not find the time to prepare lessons for school as planned. But I love him anyway...my new Hp compaq nx6310 . And the mouse...sweet...

Finally, I should mention my trip to Thailand.

Lindi and me in Tuk Tuk in Bangkok:

This has been the third time that I went to Thailand and - as always - I went to a Wat again. Even though I had more mosquito bites than leg and I fell ill in the last days, I did enjoy my stay. I love temple life. Don't ask me why. In fact, if people ask me about my holidays, the only things I can tell them is....:

- getting up at 4 in the morning
- one meal a day
- extremely humid weather
- lot of mosquitoes
- I basically lived on a construction site, as the temple is not finished
- we got jackhammer sounds every day for lunch
- whenever it rained (every day) I could not close the door to my kuti, because the wooden door expanded when getting wet
- I fell awfully sick in the last days, that I nearly slept 35 hours in the last two days.

Construction cite on temple area & a new Buddha delivered:

So, all in all: yeah, it was great. I enjoyed it! Don't ask me why, but I really do feel well there! And I will go back. I have announced my becoming a nun to my friends and relatives already (which would solve the problem with my vanishing hair...). Well, I am not 100% convinced, because teaching conditions in Germany are pretty good and I am not sure whether I want to abstain from further world trips, a nice comfy bed, a hot shower, etc....There are a few things I would miss on a long term, I assume, including the fact that - as a nun - I would not be able to donate anything to the temple. Working in Germany, in contrast, would allow me a fairly decent living.
So here I am, not knowing what is more important: money and financial security or to life in a place where one feels at home in the present moment. How far should one make plans for the future? Should we care about tomorrow, about next year? Where does courage end and stupidity begin?
I do not know and I guess, I will never find out...

8 interesting things about myself

2007-06-07T23:05:00.000-06:00

Eventually, I take my time to list 8 interesting things about myself, which I am obliged to do, because I was tagged by Erik.
However, I do not take any responsibility neither do I want to be held liable by any reader of this blog, listener to someone who reads out this blog, uncle, mother-in-law of someone who has come across the following post, any kind of politician or the president of the USA.
Thus - here they are: the 8 interesting things about myself...

1. I always start magazines on the last page and read to the first page.

2. In my spare time, when other people go out, follow their hobbies, read, write, meet up with friends...I basically do.....nothing. No music, no friends, no cinema...just...nothing. People find that odd and boring and they keep on asking me "how can you do that?" and all I reply is "well...it is easy...all you have to do is...nothing." Nobody really seems to understand. [Therefore, it is a bit hard for me to find 8 interesting things about me, because all I do.....you know....]

3. I can live from exactly the same food every single day for at least a year. Usually then comes a time, when I change the side dish.

4. I can contradict myself and still argue with other people who take the other opinion.

5. I can recall details from a book, but do not remember the title, author or overall topic.

6. I am usually interested in things and waste my time on things that no-one else can really understand, like learning the "Preacher song" in sign language (see below) or learning one and the same sentence in 37 languages or practicing headstands and things like that. In contrast to that I am quite bad at politics, history and chemistry.

7. I tend to talk to myself, which is not so much of a problem if I am by myself. However, it can be embarrassing if I have a walk and only realize that "xy" is not next to me, because people are staring in a rather strange way. As soon as I realize, I pretend to be very self-confident and continue talking as if I was just learning an important speech or preparing for an upcoming difficult conversation.

8. I hate doctors and I never go. If I am ill, I lay down and sleep. Usually, I recover quickly. Therefore, I do not need a doctor anymore. If I do not recover by myself within 2-3 days, than I am usually so sick that I cannot walk to the doctor.

So much for now - I am quite sleepy and not very creative at the moment though...

I am supposed to tag 8 further people now. The problem is that I only have one visitor on my page...Well....I will start with Centi...

Stressed out

2007-05-27T14:43:00.000-06:00

Wäh (don't know how to translate that)...I am tired. A little bit stressed out. But no..I do not complain, because it is my own fault. I could have started earlier with my thesis. And also - who wants to hang around on Pentecost if one can sit at the desk for about 12,28 hours and trying to do something with that large amount of black letters that claim to be something worth reading but aren't? Luckily, I do have the pleasure to repeat this procedure tomorrow and the day after once more. Yeah me! And what is even better is that my PC does funny things. It simply refuses to safe the design of my documents. Sometimes, it changes the design by itself (check marks are converted into dots etc..). Yeah, funny thing, in'it? Magical...
Apart from that there are no news. At the moment, I am watching a series on tV showing people who decided (for whatever reason) to live like 5000 years ago.
Don't ask me, why. On the other hand..I have always wanted to hunt bulls...

As you all know, women can do several things at the same time. Next to watching tv and typing my blog, I listen to Dido's, WHITE FLAG and Dante's Prayer.

Uh, the news....Doping scandal in Germany!!! That's a big issue at the moment as they found a few bikers who used doping prior to the race. And eventually, one after the other bikers confessed to have used doping as well. It seems as if there was no one doping-free, which (if you ask me) at least equals the chances again. Thus, they should not make such a fuss about it.
A doctor's statement turns the whole thing into a farce: "Oh come on -there is no way that a biker can do the Tour de France without doping. Physically that is just not possible!"
Ugh. Embarrassing.
Jan Ulrich seems to be loosing his face in these days, because he refused the doping for years and now his doctor has told the media that he himself gave Ulrich the injection. .... Oh well....

Enough for today.

GOOD NIGHT AND MAY YOU ALL BE BLESSED.

Weird stuff...

2007-05-20T23:00:00.000-06:00

secret bunker...don't tell anyone...

Watch out: cows falling!

Here is the smallest website in the world.

However, navigating the site demands great skills ;) ....
I enjoyed the art gallery. The news are a bit hard to read though...

Steamed flies?

2007-05-19T06:10:00.000-06:00

Triggered by Eriks topical post in which I found this
"it's not that food in shops [in Europe] is of a better quality (it often isn't)," I want to outline my current does-it-really-matter-do-have-tiny-flies-in-your-tea-bag-as-they-will-be-deadlydead-anyway-once-hot-water-is-being-poured-over-them thoughts.
As always, I buy my fennel seeds at the Indian store, because they are a lot cheaper then the German drugstores or supermarkets.
Today, they had a different brand than ususally, which didn't bother me at all. Same weight, same price, same seeds...that is all I am interested in. However, when I wanted to open the bag at home, I discovered tiny flies inside. Not one, not two...I am bad at guessing, but I would say...."a lot". I wondered what to do - the thought of drinking flie's shit did not really charm me. Neither the thought of swallowing an eye or flie's blood. The situation also reminded me of the incident last year, when I bought sticky rice (unfortunately, I have to mention that this also happened at an Asian market, which is not really of interest here). AFTER having nearly finished my bowl of rice, I discovered a huge amount of ..worms....YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I cannot tell how many there were, but certainly a lot. I did not recognise them, because those in my rice did not really move anymore....
Yeah, well...coming back to my tea: I do not know whether it really matters to soak them..I mean - they won't change the taste, will they? And after all...even in these organic food products they have all kinds of insects. It's nature! And we are animals.
Carnivores. ..
So who cares? (apart from the flies?) That's life, in'it?

Countdown....iiieekkk

2007-05-19T05:49:00.000-06:00

Here is the ultimate top ten countdown...

10. 28 minutes until my friend helps me fix the pc-problem

9. 5 days until Germany's next topmodel will be chosen

8. approximately 1 year until I have my own washing machine

7. only 576 more lifes until I become enlightened (if I work hard...)

6. about 15 years until I marry (which shall be Feb. 22, 2022)

5. about 9 months until I leave this flat and hopefully this city.

4. 3 years until I will take my first gap year and travel the world.

3. 6 months until I have my final exam and finally will be a fully fledged teacher.

2. 7 days of school until holidays start (which will be June 21st, but due to pentecost and other holidays, I have only 7 days of school..)

1. One month until I go back to Thailand

F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C.O.

Sign language :)

2007-05-16T13:35:00.001-06:00

I like it...

The Meritocracies Paradoxon

2007-05-15T15:28:00.001-06:00

Here I am - sitting at my PC after a day of work (or supposed - to - be- work). The deadline for handing in my thesis is coming threatening close.
I should create a concept on some topic related to my lessons. The concept should be transferable so that other teachers can use (STEAL!) it. I feel tempted to sign my thesis with the words "create your own concept, gnahaha!" instead of the common sentence of allowance for others to use mine.
However, it is up to them. They should know that the concepts always SOUND good, but in reality hardly ever work. Unless you are teaching in a class full of saps. And if that was the case....well, then you would not need a teacher's suggestion at all. So, coming back to my point: the papers we type, the suggestions we make...are usually...sorry, for speaking so frankly (and good God - beware that any of my teacher's will ever read my blog)....crap. Bullshit. Not working. Idealistic-Sensefree-Stuff. Non-Recycleable-Paper which is actually the only reason for keeping them in school shelves.
Just to give a very small glimpse of what I am talking about. Today I held one of the lessons that is praised in my thesis and which worked so well in this "highly motivated class with students who are only highly motivated because of my highly motivating material! So if you want to experience the best lessons ever and if you have ever wanted to see your students happy, hard working, bombarding you with questions....Then do.......TTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS......[detailed description of lesson given."
.............
Now I will provide you with two quotes from my students. Beware all teachers: if you want a copy of my thesis and if you belong to those who are happy and trustful enough to believe in others, then do not continue reading.
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.
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Quote number one:
"Could we not just stop this topic?"

Number two:
"Well, this is the worst story I have ever read. I just cannot force myself continuing."

Yeah me. I was good. I really managed to enthrall my students!...

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
And the State Examination Office for the First State Examinations for Teaching Professions in Schools (or whatever is it's English name) they will believe me. They are not interested in the truth, that's the thing. They want to live in their dreams thinking that everything works well, that they do not have to improve the teacher's education, because they are doing their job very well.
And me? I get the grade I need and I pretend to be at least average (or above).
Meritocracy sucks. But that's only my opinion.

The reason for my blogs title

2007-05-09T11:01:00.001-06:00

Here is one more things that I do in my spare time. This series is hilarious...and actually the reason for my blog's title...

For a fantastic laugh...click..

Who can do it?

2007-05-09T10:56:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately, I do not have enough motivation or time to write posts...but here is what I do after a long day of preparing lessons....

I never knew how bad one can be at these things. Try your luck...

Free hugs around the world

2007-05-06T03:33:00.000-06:00

Juan Mann - The guy who initiated the campaign

And his followers from....

Melbourne

China

Italy

Korea

Hollywood

Tel Aviv

Jaffa, Israel

Amsterdam

Myong Dong, Korea

Madrid

Argentina

London

Talentfree

2007-05-04T23:09:00.000-06:00

Damn it! Bloody test.
I am approaching my 29th birthday. Thus, I am a physically and mentally mellowed person. I can count up to 113 (since I have been in Laos, I can even cope with numbers exceeding the million), I can tie my shoestrings (oops, actually my boots have zippers and my sandals do not have...well..nevermind), I can think on a concrete operational stage (how would my bookshelf look like, if I placed another Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Goethe in there...) and all in all I do not want to be told that I haven't reached the stage of formal thinking.
Yeah, I know I did not get the result.
I appreciate the way you explained that not getting the result does not necessarily mean that one is stupid or anything accordingly. It just means that Jean Piaget's tests were pretty much focused on people who like mathematics. And you also try to tell me that the reason for failing might be the lack of realistic context in this test. You claim that I would be able to solve problems requiring formal thinking if only they are embedded in a natural context. That's why you provide the loser's (called "ME" in this case) with a second chance.

But then.......you give the ME this stupid test on 4 envelopes: "how many envelopes do you have to turn around to find out whether the hypothesis.......".

Pardon me? You are asking how many of these I have to turn around to find out whether they are attached with a stamp? Goodness gracious me, how do I know? We are living in the age of email and internet - who would be so stupid to buy even one stamp nowadays? That's a waste of time and money. Therefore, I boykott the answer.

And now? Now, you do not really now what to say...there is no excuse. You try to find your way around saying "well..even though 81 percent of all people managed to cope with this task this does not mean....yeah, well...well...one can draw the conclusion that formal thinking has to be connected to prior experience of the person. And it is not determined by age. At least not only. Well, yeah, this contradicts Piaget's thesis and actually we wanted to support it with our tests...yeah, well...but still....do not believe that you are a talentfree person, no matter how many failures you had. You are certainly a formal thinker, it is just....yeah, well....Anyway...nevermind. Just forget about everything you have done in the last 20 Minutes. Go to bed. Take a rest. Enjoy life! That's the only important thing! Become a free thinkers...
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.
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And now leave this page, please and never ever visit us again! It was a pleasure to have you as our test person. Farewell..."

::::::::::::::::::::

Here, the story ends. And the nearly 29-year-old non-formal thinking and talentfree-person-in-nearly-everything will now withdraw to her bed-chamber.

CARPE NOCTEM.

2007-05-01T02:55:00.001-06:00

Broken Book

2007-04-28T23:15:00.000-06:00

As I am single, having only virtualised friends and living in the most boring city of Germany.........
(Goodness gracious me, was that a pitch-black day when I went to the cityhall to change my passport - I asked the lady to stamp the cities name somewhere where it wouldn't be so eyecatchy...like on the last page for example. However, she refused...).....

.........I somehow slid into becoming a shopaholic. Well, not really - nothing to worry about, but in contrast to my "Oh-Yes-Grandma-You-CAN-Take-Money-Into-Your-Grave"-attitude the frequency of my shoppings has increased to 187% . The interesting thing about my shoppings is that they reveal my despair of being caught in this city and my longing for breaking out and travelling the world again. To exemplify this...since yesterday, I am proud keeper of a glaring red T-shirt showing a Chinese round faced women's figure, surrounded by Chinese letters which hopefully mean something "smart" or at least neutral. Seeing me with this shirt, it is not hard to get my call: "Get Me Out Of Here!"

Further suspicious buys: Goodness Gracious Me, the British TV series dealing with an Indian family living in Britain. This is the best Series ever!

"Oh dear, there were robbers in our house! I wonder, how they could enter - all the windows and doors were closed.."

"Well...maybe...through the cow flap?"

"Through what??? A cow flap? You mean..like a cat flap...but for cows? Cow flap?"

"Yeah, well....you know......Our pet, the cow, she should have the freedom to come in and go as she pleases...."

I don't know what to add - this series is just a fantastic laugh and (coming back to my topic) reveals my affinity to India :) .

Finally, my last buy: Rushdie's Midnight's Children, again something that allows my mind to travel to far away India and forget for the time of reading that I am in the city of B. However, I have to admit that Midnight's Children is not the easiest book I have ever read. Being in the bookstore I couldn't decide between God of small things and this one. I knew both of them won prices and had good reputations, but apart from that I didn't know too much about any of them. Therefore I had to make my choice by other criteria.

Criteria 1:
Title: Which title sounds more interesting and why?
Answer: 1:0 for Rushdie, because I think children shouldn't be outside at Midnight. Thus, I wanted to know Rushdie's opinion. I was sure, he'd give an answer to that. Additionally, I do not believe in God which caused one minus for Arundhati Roy.

Criteria 2:
Design: I did like the God - Design with it's small pink lotus flower. The beige Midnight's cover didn't really appeal to me and I wondered (and still do) how you can chose a light cover if the title inevitably collocates something dark?

Criteria 3:
Reading the first sentences: Midnight's won. Cannot tell why. Just sounded interesting to me.

Criteria 4:
Price: The prices were nearly the same, but regarding that Midnight's has at least twice as many pages as God makes it relatively cheap. Why paying 10 Euros for 200 pages if you can have 650 pages for 12 Euros? I mean...that's usury isn't it? I know it is not the best criteria counting the pages and going for the best page-price-ratio, because it takes a lot of time (especially if you do not have a calculator on hand) and sometimes it's hard to tell where page number one starts...But in my case, the comparison was easy.

Criteria 5:
Do I have the time for reading at all? Well....this criteria would be have been a plus for Gods....but as I had to hurry in order to catch my train I was standing at the counter already before evaluating this (and further) criteria.

Overall evaluation and choice:
No time for a proper evaluation. However, Midnight's won.

Happy with my new book (and being proud to have outweighed all the pros and cons and not just having grabbed anything) I went to the train, took my seat and started reading...

[....]

It took me about 5 pages until I got confused for the first time...

"Am I stupid or does this guy jump back and forward in time? And what do all the '......' mean?"

I did not want to worry too much and I was very optimistic that this would be a pleasure to read. The right travel literature.

Page 9 : "Where the hell are we now? What's happening here? Oh, we are on a boat now...Well, ok...I am flexible....No, I am not surprised or confused...I am deeply enjoying...easy..."

Page 15: "Maybe I should get a pencil and take some notes on the characters and settings...."

Page 20: "Relax, Kangaroo...you can do it!"

Page 28: "Mh...difficult book...well...as mum has always said: 'The most important thing in life is not to understand high literature or belonging to the intellectual circles, no...
The most important thing in life is to be healthy. Fullstop."

Some vague remembrances coming up: "Midnight's children is a very challenging book with special narrative style.......!"

Page 40: "This book is broken. They put the pages together in the wrong order. I want my money back!"
............................................

To be continued......

Forgotten something

2007-04-25T22:26:00.000-06:00

Lying in bed yesternight at about 11:03 and 47 seconds pm, something highly important struck my head and I said to myself "You better write that down, because tomorrow you'll have forgotten it". However, my bed was very comfortable. And I am still young (well, at least I feel young whenever I am not at my job teaching the teenies...). If only I would think very very hard, I would remember. I thought about making knots in my tissue - if only I had a tissue on hand....Next, I thought about twisting my fingers in some odd way so there would be no way around remembering the "highly important thing".
As I don't have the time to evaluate the mental procedures while sleeping, I will skip the 8 hours of sleep and come to current situation and the effect of twisting one's fingers in order to remember what you otherwise would have forgotten.
Now, the good news: I DO remember that I have to think of two things.
I do remember, that is has something to do with my job. I am supposed to bring something along with me when leaving my 34qm apartment in about 20 minutes. I know that I will be deeply annoyed and frustrated in case that I forget it...obviously the twisting method works, yeah me. However, this method lacks one tiny thing. It reminds you that there are things not to be forgotten, but it doesn't reveal any contents. Thus, here I am, knowing that I am sitting very close to the "whatever-it-is" and that I will forget packing it and that I will remember as soon as I am close to my work, having no time to return and get the "whatever-it-is". I know that I will be frustrated in about 50 Minutes, banging my head against the wall and cursing for having a brain that is not even worth to be called a sieve and that I will promise myself that I will never ever try again to prove myself that I am a superbrain...
Got to go...without the "whatever-it-is"...
I my fingers- they still feel kind of dumb.

We certainly understand you, Mr.President.....

2007-04-21T23:32:00.000-06:00

Wirtschaft ankurbeln

2007-04-21T12:45:00.000-06:00

Heute fiel mir auf, dass ich schon lange keine gute Tat mehr getan habe. Daran sollte sich schleunigst etwas ändern. Ich beschloss kurzerhand, dass ich unserem Land etwas Gutes tun wollte. Momentan sieht's in der Wirtschaft zwar garnicht mehr so schlecht aus, aber man könnte ja mal präventiv etwas tun und nicht erst, wenn die nächste Krise ansteht. Ich beschloss also, die Wirtschaft in ihrem Aufschwung zu unterstützen...und ging Shopping.
Ich brauche zwar eigentlich gar keine neuen Schuhe, aber sie sind für einen guten Zweck. Und das Shirt auch...Und das Geburtstagsgeschenk für meinen Neffen sowieso!

Drei gute Taten auf einmal, da geht es mir doch gleich viel besser! Yeah me.

Und wie gesagt - Shirt und Schuhe brauche ich eigentlich garnicht. Aber jetzt, wo ich die Sachen eh habe, da kann ich sie ja auch ab und an mal tragen. Morgen zB. und übermorgen, und wenn XY kommt, dann sowieso, und wenn ich Frau X aus K treffe...und hach ja...die Welt ist schön...

Streitschlichter

2007-04-19T23:46:00.000-06:00

Ich sitze gerade an meiner zweiten Staatsarbeit und mir wird mal wieder klar, wieso ich wissenschaftliches Arbeiten nicht mag. Man möchte sich mit einem Problem auseinander setzen und darüber berichten. Dann besorgt man sich Literatur, um sich einzulesen. Dann beginnt man das Lesen, macht sich Notizen. Und relativ schnell ist man verwirrter als zuvor, weil sich die Texte alle widersprechen. Je nach Thema kann es auch mal so sein, dass die Autoren gegeneinander wettern, lästern, schimpfen, jeweils über des Anderen Theorie herziehen....Um das noch deutlicher zu machen, werden die entsprechenden Passagen kopiert und dem Leser a la "sieh hier, so ein Schwachsinn" präsentiert. Dabei sind sie natürlich fest davon überzeugt, dass ihre eigene These die bessere und richtigere ist.
Und ich? Ich versuche die beiden gegensätzlichen Positionen erneut zu vereinen und die beiden Zankäpfel zu beruhigen. "Jeder von euch hat Recht, guys, alles eine Frage der Perspektive".
Ich mische mich eigentlich nicht in den Streit anderer Leute ein -geht mich ja irgendwie nichts an. Am liebsten würde ich schreiben "Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema XY, aber ich halte mich da raus," befürchte aber, dass ich damit nicht die gewünschten credits zusammen bekommen werde. Also muss ich nun doch mal wieder Streitschlichter spielen. Und das ist der Grund, weshalb ich wissenschaftliches Arbeiten nicht mag....

Deeply apologize

2007-04-19T13:25:00.000-06:00

First of all, I deeply apologize for the long link of this blog. I didn't mean to get such a long one, but apparently it was unavoidable. Actually, what is worse is that I am blogging again. I should not be here. I should be working. I should not start a new blog again.....CUtomorrow then...