Ouch! I was exposed to something that might cause eye and ear cancer. Thank God I just listened for about 5 seconds and I had my camera at hand, because I transfered some photos to my harddrive yesterday, so I watched for only about 20 seconds. I wanted to share this though…

I am working on my term paper (Yay me!) - or better said was working, because I probably won’t continue once I’ve posted this (so un-yay me!) - when I turned around for a second to have a look at my muted TV. I shouldn’t have switched on the sound, I mean, just from looking at these two I knew it only could be something horrible. And it was. Andy Borg and Patrick Lindner dressed up as Indian and Cowboy singing “Da sprach der alte Häuptling…” Ouch!

I thought ocean77 might write about this before I do, but it looks like she isn’t home yet. Or didn’t plan to write about it…

A few years ago - 2000 and following to be exact - we were “working” as extras on our favourite TV sitcom a couple of times. It was a great experience: meeting our favourite actor/actress, being able to watch the filming and take part in it and even getting some money for it. Not much, but it was nice anyway. We talked to one of the makeup guys a lot and ran into him on another occasion (it would take too long to explain when and why), exchanged phonenumbers and adresses and he provided us with some more or less inside information :-) So that was pretty cool. He stopped working for the show in 2002 and we never heard from or saw him again. Well we DID see him on TV a few years later, but that’s a totally different and (for him) rather embarassing story.

Anyway, because we were sort of acquaintance, we obviously decided to send him a christmas card once. It must have been in 2001 (the post stamp isn’t clearly visible), because we didn’t know him before and had no reason to contact him later. None of us remembered sending him the card in the first place. But we obviously did, because when I met ocean77 for lunch today she presented something she recently got in the mail. The christmas card: “Returned to sender because the addressee could not be found at this address”. We sent that card in 2001 !!! Where on earth did that envelope got stuck? And why didn’t the post company just discarded it, when they discovered it somewhere after all this time? Didn’t anyone think that it’s really pathetic to return something to sender after almost seven years? Seven years! It’s ridiculous really and I always doubted this “letter took a century to be delivered” reports. But now I’ve got proof. These things really happen. Unbelievable…

Just a really short entry, to report that once again the shipper in me is starting to replace the ordinary TV viewer. I watched the first few seasons of Chicago Hope without having a favorite couple. I liked some characters more than others but even that was merely a mild preference. And except for Billy and Diane there wasn’t really any couple around to get crazy about anyway. I always liked these two though and do so even more with everything that’s happening. Pregnancy, getting married at the airport ;-) and everything.

But now there also are Kate - another one of my favourites, even though she can be a self-centered annyoing person sometimes - and Danny, the electritian. The moment they got stuck on the elevator I remembered that storyline from the first time I watched this show a century or so ago. I also remember that this is not going to last, so I’ll enjoy it while I can. It’s so much fun to watch, because they are so not the couple you would expect to happen. She is the chief of surgery after all. I love how much more human and girly this fling or whatever it is going to be is making her. And I just hope that it won’t end too badly or that she won’t be the bitch to break it of in the end because she thinks herself out of his league. I don’t remember how it ended :-)

I have to admit I didn’t remember anything about Jack and Lisa from the first time I watched the show either. Probably because even back then Kate was my favorite and I paid more attention to her. But these two are really really cute and thanks to oceans77 I know that they are going to last a while longer. The way she is asking Keith about Jack (or better how he answers before she had even asked) was so funny. The way Jack asked her out was so much fun to watch and I even enjoyed the way she called it off, because I knew she will give in sooner or later. My absolute favorite line: “Goofy is good. I like goofy.” Yay! I’m going to have so much fun watch these two to get together. And to see how Kate and Danny and Billy and Diane will work out as well.

On the morning of January 1st I had the idea for this blog category. I was on the plane flying home from Rome, we were drinking sparkling wine (New Year and all) and I once again was a little bit annoyed that the tables in planes are clearly designed for right-handed persons only. The table’s dent for cups and cans and that stuff is in  the upper right corner, so I either put the cup on the left side of the table and risk having it spilled all over me during some turbulence. Or I put in on the right side and have to reach diagonally all the way across the table to grab it.

Well, that was January 1st. The idea stayed on the back of my mind and surfaced every once in a while and even more often recently. So I planned to really start this category and was only waiting to get some more photos to prove my point. Of course I rarely took these pictures so I never put up a first post. BUT then I read an article about the International Lefthander Days, which is today, and knew I just had to finally start this tiny thing on my blog.
So… lefthandedness. I guess I’m the last generation which was more or less consciously trained to write with the right-hand even if they were definitively left-handed. (I wasn’t forced to do that though. Or at least I don’t remember and I don’t feel traumatized or became dyslexic or anything). Writing with the right hand is probably the reason why there are a few things I can do with either left or right. I use the computer mouse on the right side as well, because for me it was too much trouble to always put it from one side to the other on the shared computers (at home, school, work). But besides that the left side is always my first choice, although that sometimes leads to movements which are and probably must look rather wrenched.

At an ATM for example (I didn’t dare to actually take a photo of that, even though I would just take a photo of me. But with the cameras around and everything. *g*). The card reader is always located on the right side of the display and PIN Pad. Thus: Diagonally movement. Of course I could and can insert the card with my right hand but getting the card out of my wallet with my left hand just comes naturally as well as the act of putting it into the card reader with the left hand.

The water-tap and more importantly the soap dispenser is always situated on the wrong side (just like the dent in the planes’ tables).

And it’s not easy to find a cup, on which I can actually see the design (logo, slogan, picture) on it. On 75 % of the cups I only see a blank opposite side. I wanted to proved that point with a photo as well, but I actually don’t own any cup like that anymore. I usually only buy the ones with a decor all around. These do exists, but not nearly as many as the usual right-handed cups.

Even though I get used to using the regular appliances it was a huge relief when I found out about lefthanded scissors and sharpeners and can-openers. If you don’t think there is much difference, just try using a right-handed scissor with your left hand without getting cross-eyed :-)

So this definitely is a right-handed world (I couldn’t even find a left-column wordpress blog layout I like because there are just a few). I managed to adapt to it more or less and I’m sure I will come up with some more photos and stories later. I’ll end this with my favorite slogan I found somewhere a long time ago.

God created a few perfect people. The rest are right-handed. (-:

…goes to my mom today.

Bro2 is planning to build a house directly next to my mom’s / the family’s house. He planned to do it for a while and just a few weeks ago finally started to put the plan into action. Hiring a conveyer, hiring an architect, talking to solicitor about property issues and so on. Today my mom got the official authorization to have another house build on her property and that document included information about the house number for that new house. I guess the authorization of the building licence for the house itself will reach us soon as well.
A couple of days ago Bro3 and and I wondered where exactly on the property the sewer, the power supply line and the phone line will be situated. (Power and phone are underground in Germany). I asked Bro2 this afternoon and he hasn’t thought about that yet. I guess it’s a good thing that Bro1 and Bro3 work(ed) in the building sector either as engineer or craftsman and that those two know how to deal with these matters.

When I told my mom that Bro2 - who is the builder after all - had no idea where the lines could / should / have to be she only deadpanned: “But at least he’s already got his own house number…” which totally cracked me up. The next few months / next year will be really exciting (funny and annoying) for all of us…:-)

I could mope about a couple of things that went wrong yesterday and beat myself up about the lack of motiviation to write my term paper, but I was going for more substantial stuff here, so I’ll confine myself to give you a concert review from last night. The Killers concert took place as part of the Vodafone music unlimited festival in Cologne. Outdoors directly in front of the cathedral, which is a cool location for any concert. (My cameraphone provides rather crappy pictures, sorry)

I arrived about 30 minutes before the support act was supposed to start and got a great spot at the side of the barriers, which seperate the confined space directly in front of the stage from the rest of the venue. [I probably could write a whole long paragraph about some people in and out of that confined space, but it wouldn't be really substantial, so...]
The support act was ok, not bad, not great and played about 45 minutes, but it took another 30 minutes to convert and prepare the stage for the Killers, who came on stage around 9 pm and sadly only played for about 80 minutes including encores. But, and that’s a big BUT, that were 80 fantastic minutes. The started with “For Reasons Unknown” and played “Somebody Told Me” as second song already, which put the crowd into a really great mood. I almost regretted to have chosen a spot at the barrier (to rest my back during the waiting before the concert started) and to not have choosen a spot in the crowd in front of the stage. I will do so next time, because I will definitely go and see them again, when I’ll get the chance.
They played all the really cool songs “Mr. Brightside” “Read My Mind”, “Bones” and so many more and I was happy to see (or better hear) that Brandon Flowers really can sing. He sounded as good and clear as he does on the record, which is not necessarily the case with every pop- or rockstar. But he was really good. My favorite probably were “Sam’s Town”, which was a combination of the Abbey Road and the album version and “Jenny…”, which I love a lot in general. During the second verse he replaced “She couldn’t scream…” with “She kicked and screamed…” which made me smile because it is so much closer to the truth. (of the story in that song and all). I also liked the new song “Spaceman” and the final song “All These Things That I’ve Done” was a perfect choice, because it ended pretty bombastic. With some fireworks as well, which was a big suprise and just a awesome moment.

So even though 80 minutes were much too short, it was definitely worth it and I’m really happy I had the chance to see this band and hear this music in concert. And the next time I’ll be one of those in front of the stage as well :-)

When I changed blog hosts and languages I was also determined to only publish substantial stuff on my blog, because writing in English takes even more time than writing the post itself takes anyway. I’m failing miserably with this I’m afraid. I want to tell and write about stuff, but it’s all just bits and pieces from my life and I’m wondering if anyone really is reading this all. But on the other hand, this all always was more about me telling things and not about someone reading about it :-)
I still wish I would come up with some more coherent and complete topics to write about every once in a while. I almost already published a post like this on Thursday, but was too tired, too lazy, too unmotivated to do so. Until now even more bits and pieces have piled up…

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I had a work meeting yesterday afternoon / evening, so I couldn’t watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Bejing, but I taped the nightly rerun and watched it this morning. I really enjoyed it, it was a great show, with quite a few really impressive moments. I won’t get much stuff done during the next two weeks I’m afraid, because my TV or the online news ticker will be on all the time. It’s one of the few sport events that I really like to watch. Mostly anything of it really. And I always really enjoy seeing the giddy and happy athletes marching into the stadium because for them this really must be a monumental moment.

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The work meeting went really well and I’m really glad we’re back to the everyday business after the summer break. It feels strange and bad to not be able to work because there is just not much work to do. It made me feel rather useless sometimes and that’s not the best feeling for someone with low self-esteem, even if not of it was my fault anyway. It just was a slow un-eventful month. It’s nice to have all the co-workers / bosses back on board after the break, because we usually get along very well and easy-going. And even when there is a lot of controversial stuff to discuss, meetings with this group are still fun most of the time. “Welcome to the first meeting after the summer break..” - “Oh, it was summer break?”

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Olympics might not be the only thing keeping me from getting stuff done. Reading is taking up my time as well, because I finally started with the Bartimaeus Trilogy (in German translation) again, which took up so much space on my pending reads shelf.  (I just learned the term “pending reads” recently, by the way. I like it). I read the first part early last year, but wanted to wait with part two until the final part is available as well, because I tend to forget too much stuff from the first part. I bought the final part earlier this year, but never got around to start reading it all. And I actually do not remember much of the details from the first part, so that’s why I’m reading it again right now and I’m enjoying it immensly. The commentary from the Djnni himself is so much fun.

For a short moment I was tempted to put this first part back down and start reading the “Twilight” series instead. I haven’t heard anything of the “Twilight” series until a few days ago, when there were a couple of Twilight-related posts in a livejournal on my friends list. I thought it was something like Anne Rice’s vampire-thing, which I didn’t like too much and just skimmed these posts. I found it intrigueing that another book-series could cause such a hype though. Then I saw the movie trailer - totally by chance - and was intrigued even more and on a whim ordered the first two books (in English) via Amazon.
On Thursday I had to search for a book present for one of our co-workers and at the Mayersche bookstore there was a big “Breaking Dawn” stack just inside the foyer and some more stacks with the first three books on the upstairs floors. Twilight everywhere. Not as much hype as Harry Potter, but for something I didn’t even know existed until last week it definitely got a lot of attention. I was really tempted to start reading it now. But it would really mess up my pending reads schedule. (Told you, I like that term *g*)

°°°°°

On Wednesday my mom and I spent the afternoon visiting some relatives, which was really nice. There was a time, when I found these visits pretty boring, especially when there weren’t any of my brothers or other cousins around to play with. But I always understood my mom’s desire to catch up with her relatives, siblings, cousins (from her father’s side) and her only still living aunt (from her mother’s side). I don’t know how old that aunt - my great-aunt - is, but my mom is already 74, so the aunt must be… well somewhat older *g*. My mom originally is from southern Germany (about 500 km away from where we live) and because of that distance doesn’t see her siblings as much as she would if she hadn’t fallen in love with that guy from the Ruhr metroplitian area :-)
When we were kids our family spent the spring and fall holidays down south with my grandparents. After my dad died (almost 20 years ago) and we kids grew up, our family (or parts of it) only went there for weddings and that kind of family festivities. Bro3 and my mom used to spend a week there in the summer though (sometimes accompanied by me or Bro2) and they did so this year as well.
During their stay said great-aunt was visiting her daughter near Cologne (which is only about 80 km from our town) and she is staying there till this weekend, so we took the chance to visit her and my mom’s cousin there instead, Although we don’t live that far apart, my mom and her cousin rarely visit with each other but only talk on the phone every once in a while. But we spend a wonderful relaxing afternoon in their garden, had lunch and coffee and icecream and caught up with everything that went on in our families. And after all the crap my mom (and our whole family) went through last year I understand her desire to take every chance to meet with the remaining relatives even more. As harsh as it may sound, at a certain age you never know when or if you will ever see them again, so you better take every chance you get. And we indeed had a lovely afternoon.

My mom and her aunt and cousin talked a lot about different cousins and relatives, who I only know by name (if at all) and that made me look for a freeware to compile a family tree. Which is what I did on Thursday night with the few information I know and I will continue to do that this afternoon with my mom’s help. This family is huge! She has got six siblings, my grandfather had three or four and my grandmother had about five to six. I think… I don’t know that stuff and that’s why I need my mom. I even had a hard time remember the names of some of my cousins kids, but I only see any of my cousins every other year or less. But it’s fun to dig into your family’s past, so that’s what I’m going to do this afternoon before I head to Cologne to see the Killers live in concert. *squeeee*

°°°°°

There is still a term paper to write! *sigh* I really should start working on parts of it now instead of writing about my usual day-to-day life. Part of my day-to-day life is me still having problems with my back. It was better for a while and it felt even better when I got out of bed this morning without much trouble for the first time in days. But right now I’m not sure if it really is better. Standing and jumping for hours at concert tonight won’t really help either…

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And finally the best news of this week: Thanks to many Grey’s Anatomy related sites I now know that there definitely will be a “McHouse” on Grey’s soon. At least the set for that already exists, which means there will be scenes shoot there. Meredith and Derek are really building the house and will be living there together. *squeeeeeeeeee* I can’t wait to see that. I’m wondering who will take over Mer’s room at the old house? Cristina? George? Lexie? George AND Lexie :-)? In less than seven weeks the show will be back and there are enough episodes of Chicago Hope or Dr. Who and also various books available to keep me busy until then…

I usually write all my entries in a text editor and just copy them to this wordpress blog and my livejournal. Yesterday around noon I was in the process of inserting the right LJ cut and stuff at my livejournal, when my internet suddenly shut down. First I thought it was just livejournal but then I realized no other site was working and I noticed blinking lights at my DSL modem, which is never a good sign.
So I did the usual, switch off the modem, wait a while, switch it back on. Nothing changed. I tried it a couple of times, before I called the service hotline. “Due to thunderstorms there can be breakdowns in some regions” was the automatich message on the hotline. I left my apartement for the afternoon (for other reasons) but when I came back around 7 PM it still wasn’t working. And so wasn’t the hotline: “This service is temporarily unavailable…” WTF ?!? It’s a service hotline! I tried it again later and even got someone on the phone, who could only tell me that there was indeed a major connection breakdown in my region and it would take till the next morning to be up and running.

I once again realized how dependend I am on the internet nowadays. It’s really pathetic. I usually don’t mind being shut off the internet too much - or at least I can handle it - if I know it in advance. Or if I can use Bro3’s internet instead. But he is shut off for months now as well. Different story :-) Anyway, to be offline from one moment to the other sucks.

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Update on my mom’s health status: She lost the feeling in her left hand for a while now and our GP first thought it was some ortho stuff. But the orthopedist didn’t find anything and sent her off to a neuro specialist. That’s what we went yesterday, as she went to get that consult at “my” neuro practice.
And they found the cause pretty easily as it was obviously standard symptoms. I don’t know why I never thought of that: She’s got carpal tunnel syndrome, something pressing on the nerves in her wrist and she most probably has to have surgery for that. We don’t know anything more yet, until she sees a hand surgeon and discuss everything wit our GP. And it’s not like she didn’t go through enough crappy medical stuff yet *sigh* My back pain is still the same by the way…

°°°°°°

Yesterday I finally took some pictures of my darts. Pretty neat, ain’t they…?

I called in sick today. And as precaution for tomorrow as well. My lower back is killing me. I have problems with blocked lumbar vertebraes every once in a while, and now is one of those times. I guess, my vertebraes didn’t like walking around on pavement and climbing about 400 stone steps in London last week, because my lower back already bothered me a bit then. It didn’t get better, although I tried to relax and treated it with heat in various forms. Nothing seemed to help, so I went to see the doc this morning.
My general practitioners are on vacation at the moment, so I had to go to their stand-in GP. And as I don’t own a car I literarily mean “go”. During a nasty heavy shower and even with an umbrella my pants were soaked. Ick!
Being in that GP’s practice I once again know why I like the practice and staff of mine so much. The doc himself was ok, though. He did some manual manipulation to un-block the vertebraes, advised me to take some ibuprofen for the next three days and to not do anything to strenous. I think I can do that :-). At least it doesn’t hurt constantly, only at certain movements.

Now I’ll spend the next couple of hours with a hot pack on my back once again, before I have to accompany my mom to one of her doctor’s appointments. Doctors all around and none is looking like McDreamy. Or Alex Karev. Or Pete or even Sam :-) *sigh*

°°°°°

I really hope that playing Darts didn’t cause any of the back pain, because then that might turn into something chronic :-) During the last few days I spent more time throwing darts at a board then in my complete life before. I never thought I would, because I always thought I’m just not good at it and I could never learn it anyway. But like so many other things in life it really is just a matter of practice. Maybe not just practice, but also technique and maybe a bit talent, but definitely a lot of practice. And that’s what I’ve been doing and I definitely see improvements. Pretty fast even. I still need more than twice as many attempts as Bro2 and Bro3 to complete a Round-a-Clock, but I see the improvements. Round-the-Clock is a very good and simple way to practice on your own.

On Friday I even bought my own set of steel darts, because it really does make a difference if you can throw with the same darts all the time or if you have to switch sets and use the ones not used by someone else at that moment. So I wanted to have my own set. It just feels better. Or maybe I just want to show off :-) Anyway, when I browsed through the thousands of flights (the wings at the end of a dart) to personalize my darts I found the perfect ones for me. Unfortunateley I haven’t thought of taking a picture yet, although I knew all the time that I would write about it here. I will take my camera with my this afternoon, when I meet my mom (at her house, where the family’s Darts arena is situated *g*)

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I did some other things this weekend except playing Darts and whining about my lower back pain though. I started to work on my Climate Change term paper once again. Actually I wanted to hand it in at the end of July; now I’m aiming for mid-August. Ambitious probably, but I need that sort of pressure this time. I have a lot of ideas for the different assignments, I just have to put them into a logical order. And today, waiting that the practice, I even started reading the study material for the mobility class.
I also started working on my vacation photobook for the Norderney trip in September 2006. I’m soooo behind with these photobooks. There were five more photobook-worthy vacations after that (including the London trip). But the good thing is, that I realized it doesn’t take that long to work on. Well, it still takes quite some time, but I managed to cover almost half the albeit short trip to Norderney in about 90 minutes last night. That even included a software crash, when I hadn’t saved the current two pages and had to do it all over again.
And I finally managed to get my hold on the complete new Doctor Who series. Four seasons á 13 episodes. Yay! I have no idea when I will get around to start watching the show, but at least I’ve got them on stock now. And my DVD recorder seems to work for once. Maybe it all was just a matter of DVD brand? I have to give it a few more trys.

On Saturday I spent a wonderful night with some friends celebrating Hai_di’s birthday. It’s always fun with these group of friends, catching up with all the stuff going on in our lifes, eating yummy food and dessert, drinking pink prosecco, playing games and just having a great time.

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In reminiscence of my London trip I watched “Shakespeare in Love” on Friday night. I think I liked it better, when I saw it at the movies a couple of years ago. It was ok, entertaining, but I don’t really understand some of the Academy Awards this movie has won. Best movie and best actress? I have to admit I didn’t at all remember that the movie and Gwyneth for that movie won. Who was their competition that year?

I paid Chicago Hope some more visits this weekend as well. I’m almost done with season 3 and I’m anxious to see how it all works out (or not) for Jack McNeil and his gambling. At least now the hospital staff know about it and I hope they can help in some way. And that Jack let them help him. And you don’t just say “You wanna hit me? Go on and hit me!” :-) to Billy Kronk without some sort of reaction *g* Pretty intense scene. Talking about Billy and Diane: I’ve seen quite some proposals on several TV shows in my life, but I think the one at the end of episode of 3.21 was a really great one. It didn’t quite top Kevin’s on Brothers & Sisters, but it comes close. In it’s own way :-)

Books

Read

• Teach With Your Heart (Erin Gruwell, 2007) [E]
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (William Shakespeare, 1600) + the according Cliff’s Notes (2001) [E]
• Lightning Strikes Twice (AriaAdagio, 2007) [E] (This fanfic has 670 pages, so it definitely belongs in the book section) [E]
• Shakespeare: The World as a Stage (Bill Bryson, 2007)

trial & error

• Der Goldene Kompass (1995, Philip Pullman) [G]

Movies & TV

• Penelope (at the movies) [G]
• Pride And Prejudice (DVD) [E]
• An Ideal Husband (DVD) [E]
• Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod (DVD) [G]
• Freedom Writers (DVD) [E]
• Becoming Jane (DVD) [E]
• Chicago Hope 2.17- 3.16 (TV/DVD) [E]
• Batman - The Dark Knight (at the movies) [E]
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (DVD) [E]
• The X-Files - I Want to Believe (at the movies) [G]