Last Day of November…

And all of a sudden the last day of November has arrived :-) It bothers me a bit, that I slipped so close to the finish and didn’t manage to blog on Saturday. What do I think of the whole NaBloPoMo experience? It certainly made me write a lot more, which was the plan. Especially in the first few days I really thought about what I should/could write about and hopefully managed to write some interesting posts and not just recount my ordinary days. But in the end I sort of did that (recount the ordinary) more often than writing about a special topic. I’m not sure what to think of that.

I guess, there is  a reason why I posted so rarely in the summer months. I didn’t really have anything interesting to tell from my personal or work life. Or there were possible topics, but I just didn’t know how to put my thoughts into words. When I started to write in English regularily and changed my blog title and everything, the plan was to write more thought-through posts, to only write when I had something to say. Looking back on the almost two years I’m writing in this blog, I didn’t quite keep up with that resolution until this summer. And even then there were probably quite a few random posts.

I think twitter has a lot to do with the lack of posts, especially those random ordinary life posts, in this blog. I tend to blurt out and vent and bitch but also to squee and utter happy thoughts much more on twitter than in a blog posts. Which leaves me with very little to write about, except the project365 (which is not really writing) and TV show reviews and the occasional hockey game.

The weird thing is: I actually want to write more real posts. Write anything in general. But not just about anything, if you know what I mean. There are still quite a few topics I might want to write about, but I never really get a grip on those. I don’t know where or how to start and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to convey my point of view.

I don’t know where that leaves me. And this blog. *sigh* I’m not closing down, don’t worry. The NaBloPoMo at least taught me, that I might be doing better with some kind of assignment. Be given a special topic to think and write about. Which makes this blogging sound like work, but it wouldn’t really be. Like I said, I want to write. I just need some more inspiration :-)  Maybe I should participate in more blog memes and such to get the inspiration I’m looking for.

Until then there is still one topic left from the NaBloPoMo topics I thought I might write about and I’m planning to do that later this week…

Charging (My) Batteries…

On the last few days I had to mess up my NaBloPoMo project *sigh*. I planned to be home around 11 PM last night, enough time to write a short post about anything. But unfortunately that didn’t work out the way I had planned. Key elements of the story I won’t be able to write, because I’m so so tired, would be:

• a discharged car battery (my own fault, long and slightly embarrassing story, so it remains untold )
• the abscene of anyone who could jumpstart my car
• a cancelled train and 60 minutes at a central station, on a Saturday around midnight (which means: partying teenagers and remains of the football crowd.. a lot of drunks really)

I got about 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up again to spend another long day at a Green Party convention. Someone helped me to jumpstart the car today at least.

But I really really have to charge my batteries now as well.

Project365, 183 – 189 (Week 27)

I took most of these photos with my new Palm Pre and I’m not sure yet if I really will leave my camera at home from now on. The camera definitely takes better pictures, but it’s a lot easier to take them with the phone that’s close by all the time anyway. When I edited the photos in a batch I messed up a tiny bit, that’s why these photos are smaller this week.

2009-11-20: The package I was waiting for… my Palm Pre

Blah

I’ve been feeling weird all day. Like I might get sick with a heavy cold or the flu or the new flu. Well the last one not seriously, and I don’t really have any flu-like symptoms. Not even cold-like symptoms. No running nose, no scratchy throat. No headache, but a feeling like a headache might be on it’s way. Like my sinus might be swollen a bit. I don’t know… just feeling weird and off all day. One of my tooth, which is the abutment tooth of a bridge feels weird as well. Or to be more specific the gum and jaw around it feels weird. Inflammed, but I have no idea what could have caused that. Probing around that area with my tongue all the time most probably doesn’t improve the situation, but I can’t help it. I got a dentist appointment in a week to have it checked out. I just hope it won’t get any worse.

Ugh, totally insignificant post, isn’t it? But I just can’t think of anything significant to write about at the moment and insteand I’m off now to watch some more “West Wing”

I’m Feeling Really Lucky Today…

Today is the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women”. Various female activists from woman rights groups, politics, help centers and the police campaigned today at our town’s market place to raise money for our county’s women’s shelter and to raise awareness for the problem of domestic abuse and violence. I had the day off, so I joined them to help out and to show my support for the cause, because it is such an important one. The state governement cut back the funding for women’s shelters years ago, the city municipalities are often reluctant to raise their share of the funding, most of the employees live with one-year-contracts, because it’s not clear if there is money to pay them in the next year… the whole situation is just rather frustrating.

While I was out there this morning I thought about how lucky I am to never have been the victim of domestic or any other kind of violence. I can’t imagine to ever stay in an relationship that’s turned out to be an abusive one. To let that happen I’d have to be totally emotionally dependent on that guy and I can’t really see that (being totally emotionally dependent) happening to me. What makes me lucky though, is, that I was raised to have enough self-respect and a sense of self-worth to know that I don’t have to endure anything like that. That I deserve better than being beaten up and abused.
But most of all I’m lucky, because I have family and friends I could turn to. A safe place I could flee to. Brothers who would protect me. We might not be as close as other siblings, but I’m sure that if I’d call anyone of my brothers and and tell him my boyfriend had beaten the crap out of me, my brothers wouldn’t hesitate to come and get me out of there immediately and bring me back to my Mom’s.
But how many women lack that kind of safety net, because their parents or siblings just don’t care or they don’t have a family anymore or they live too far away. Who weren’t raised to be indepentent and self-reliant women. Who don’t know where to ask for help, especially in a society which turns to be more and more egoistic and indivdual and where people tend to care more about themselves and not about others?

So, yes, I’m lucky and (not just in the spirit of the Thanksgiving Holiday) I’m really grateful for that today….

“I’ll be in Scotland before you…”

When I was planning my Scotland trip earlier this year, of course some of the travel guides mentioned the traditional and very popular Scottish folk song “Loch Lomond”. I didn’t know it then and somehow never thought of finding it online somewhere to listen to it. Before I left for Scotland I told a few acquaintances about the trip and one of them (a 60-something guy) immediately sung the song for me. Very beautiful song indeed.

The “Museum of Scotland” In Edinburgh hosted a special exhibition about Scottish pop culture in the summer and they showed short clips of various Scottish singers and bands, Amy MacDonald, The Hooters etc on TV screens all around. There also was a clip of a band doing a live version of “Loch Lomond”. I just saw these few seconds, but it really moved me, because it is such a powerful song, when it’s sung by thousands of fans. I still didn’t know who the band was, but after some online research I was pretty sure that it had to be Runrig. During the rest of the summer I actually planned to download the song somewhere, but I never got around to do it and then I forgot about it.

Among my “Hockey-Weekend in Munich” travelgroup were two huge Runrig fans. I accidently found out about that when they talked about their trip to Edinburgh this summer and when I asked about it, they told me, they went there for the Runrig concert. They even spent their honeymoon in Scotland, which I didn’t know before either. Turns out that he has been a huge Scotland fan for years and years. After we got back from Munich I went to buy some CDs and decided to look for Runrig as well. I found a “Best of” for a rather reasonable price and ofcourse it includes “Loch Lomond” in a live version. The booklet (which I read on the train on my way back home) states about this song:

Project365, 176 – 182 (Week 26)

Without further ado, the latest Project365 pix…

2009-11-13: Lucky Dragon for my trollbeads bracelet

Music Was My First Love…

My last.fm profile might be confusing for some folks, because there are very different artist on top of the list. Yes, I actually do like this variety of music. Best proof for that, were the two very different concerts last week.

I had a great time at the Ingrid Michaelson concert in Cologne on Tuesday. There are so many “artists” around, that need a large band and a huge production on the stage (with dancers and lights) to cover up the fact that the sound of their music is very much artificially manufactured in the studio with the help of programming and computers and such. Just like last year Ingrid was only accompanied by a female background singer, who also played the guitar on a few songs. Ingrid herself played keyboards and her ukulele and that was it. And it was awesome. Can you imagine any of the Idol or Superstars casting show winners to enter a stage with just her/his own voice and one simple instrument? Of course that would imply that these guys actually can play an instrument.

Ingrid can not only sing and play instruments, she’s also a very funny person on stage. Kind of crazy sometimes, but very funny. She definitely enjoyed being up on the stage and it’s always a plus during a concert to see that the artist actually enjoys what she/he is doing. One of the highlights was “The Chain” in which she asked for a third female singer from the audience, because the song is a round ["Kanon" in German] and needs three singers. She told that in the US usually there a dozens of volunteers, but it would be important that you really CAN sing, so noone should volunteer if she didn’t feel capable. Of course no girl volunteered after that remark ;-) There was a guy though who did and he got up on the stage and he was awesome! I think neither the audience or Ingrid herself expected him to be that good, so it definitely was a highlight of the show
Greg Laswell was the opening artist (just with guitar and keyboards as well). I knew a few of his songs from last.fm and Grey’s Anatomy and I enjoyed his performance very much as well. Just like Ingrid he is a great singer and musician and doesn’t need more than one instrument and his voice to capture an audience. And he was funny too. I’m still grinning, when I remember his tiny story about the spinning toilet seats at the restrooms along the German highways.

Thursday night meant a different venue and different music, but equally enjoyable concert. Hai_di and I saw Sunrise Avenue in Dortmund and had a great time. I have to admit that I’m really bad when it comes to Sunrise Avenue lyrics (except for “Fairytale Gone Bad” and the chorus of most of the other songs). It was fun to sing along and dance along anyway. They let the audience sing quite a lot actually. They had some funny stories to tell and stuff to act out as well, which was very very entertaining. I will definitely go and see them again on a new tour some time in the future.

How To Spend A Saturday Night

Some of you might realize that I didn’t actually post this late at night on the 21st, but 12 hours later on the morning of the 22nd. I admit that this is cheating, but I really don’t want to mess up the look of the calendar for November and it would looked messed up if there was one blank day on it. Maybe putting up a few posts today will make up for the negligence yesterday. I was so busy with doing laundry and still getting to know my Palm Pre (I never thought smartphones can be so time consuming *g*, but I still have to figure out why my google calendar isn’t synched) and a TV marathon of “Flash Forward” with Hai_di, Ripper_Girl and KerrSmith2306. We met in the late afternoon (5 PM) so I thought I might be home before midnight to post something, but of course we decided to watch one more episode. And another one. And a last one *g* In the end we managed to watch the first 8 episodes, I’ll be watching the 9th tonight and then I’ve caught up and can put this show to my “weekly watch list” ;-) As you might have guessed: I liked it a lot.

Grey’s Anatomy – 6.10 “Holidaze”

There are a couple of minutes left of the day, which should be enough for my Grey’s review. I’m back in the mood I was in after 6.08. Season 6 is just not my season. Or it’s not my show anymore. On a scale from 1 – 10, I’d give this episode a 4. Or maybe just a 3.5. It all somehow just didn’t work for me.