Sonntag, 27. November 2005

a South Park version of me

Here comes my first attempt at posting a picture. Uploading didn't work with Opera, so I'm trying again with IE.



Hair never looks quite right, but it's probably the closest it gets to my real haircut.

Let me introduce: Thomas Kretschmann, actor

I’m probably gonna sound like I’m just jumping on the bandwagon now or whatever you call that (because he’s been getting a lot of media attention recently, I think) but I’ve really known and liked this actor for a very long time. He’s in the upcoming remake of King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson from the LotR trilogy. I had heard about this project, but didn’t realize it was coming out so soon (December 14) until a couple of days ago. I haven’t seen the old King Kong movie so I don’t think I’ll watch the new one, but anyway, Thomas Kretschmann is definitely worth mentioning so here goes:

He’s 43, but looks younger, I think. More like 37. He’s got 3 kids, but that’s all he said about that in a recent TV interview. I don’t think he’s married and I have no idea who the mother of his children is or if they’ve all got the same mother. He was a professional swimmer in the former GDR, i.e. Eastern Germany. He couldn’t stand the political system so he ran away in 1983. He said he knew there were 3 options: making it, being imprisoned or being shot dead. He didn’t tell anyone about his plans and he was aware that he might never see his friends and family again. So it certainly was a tough decision to make. Thanks to the wall coming down and the following German reunification he could see them all again. Kretschmann got to West Germany via Hungary and Yugoslavia or something. Sounded like quite an adventure in the interview I saw.

Anyway, I’ve seen him in many films on German TV. I can’t remember any particular one at the moment, but he’s a good actor. He’s also been in quite a number of international productions, such as The Pianist by Roman Polanski (for which Adrien Brody got an Oscar, I think). Kretschmann’s part was smaller than I expected, unfortunately. He was also in U-571 (with Jon Bon Jovi and Matthew McConaughey) and he said these 2 films were the reason why Peter Jackson wanted him for King Kong. He will be on US TV soon in a movie about Pope John Paul II, or rather, he plays the Pope. Oh, and he was in Der Untergang (Downfall, about Hitler’s last days) which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscar’s last year.

In the TV interview I noticed quite a few things Kretschmann seems to have in common with Christian Bale: they’re both not good at auditions cos they can get into their parts much better when they’re in their costumes on the set. And they both seem to be very dedicated and determined actors. I hope these two will be in a film together someday.

Freitag, 25. November 2005

Snow-blogging, part 2

Letzte Nacht kamen ca. 10 cm Schnee vom Himmel. Hatte ziemlich Schiss, mit dem Auto zur Arbeit zu fahren. Meine Eltern meinten, nur die ersten paar Meter wären schwierig, weil spätestens im Ortskern geräumt wäre. Haha, von wegen. Bis zur Autobahn war die Fahrbahn mehr oder weniger schneebedeckt, aber es ging besser zu fahren, als ich dachte, weil kein Eis drunter war. Nur einmal beim Abbiegen bin ich etwas aus der Spur gekommen und hätte fast einen von diesen schwarz-weißen Pfosten gerammt. Allerdings hab ich für die Strecke bis zur Autobahn, für die ich sonst 10 Minuten brauch, 40 min. gebraucht. Toll. Auch auf der Autobahn war erst mal 50 km/h das Höchste der Gefühle. Nach einigen Kilometern wurde es besser und man konnte wieder ganz normal 80-100 km/h fahren. Allerdings sieht mein Auto jetzt aus wie 'ne Dreckschleuder, weil die Fahrbahn total nass war und es tierisch gespritzt hat.

Insgesamt bin ich nur ca. 10 bis 15 min. zu spät ins Büro gekommen. Und jetzt scheint schon wieder die Sonne, d.h. es taut und der Schnee bzw. das Wasser plätschert vom Dach runter.

Ach ja, und es gab einen total seltsamen "Regenfleck". Sah aus wie ein Regenbogen, war aber nur punktuell am Himmel zu sehen. Hab ich noch nie vorher gesehen. Sah aber schön aus. Soweit mein "Schneebericht".

English summary: we had about 4 inches of snow last night so it took me about twice as long as usual to drive to work. But it wasn't that bad, no ice on the streets or so. Sun's out, so the snow's melting away already.
Oh, and, no, I'm not gonna post a snow report every single time it snows. At least I don't think I will, but who knows. You have been warned.

Mittwoch, 23. November 2005

Another quiz (this is fun!)

Your Birthdate: December 31

You're a pretty traditional person. If it's lasted, it's probably good.
You seek stability - both in your career and your romantic relationship.
In return, you're very loyal and predictable. Which is usually a good thing.
Without a partner, you feel lost. Being with someone is very important to you.

Your strength: Your dependability

Your weakness: You hate being alone

Your power color: Midnight blue

Your power symbol: Shell

Your power month: April


Okay ... I hate being alone and without a partner I feel lost?? You gotta be kidding me. If that was true, I probably would have killed myself a long time ago.

I'm dependable, well, I'd say that's true. Predictable sounds boring, though. Hm.

Midnight blue as a color is okay.

Power Month April?? My current job ends in March, so I don't think that'll become true.

Quiz

Your Personality Profile

You are dignified, spiritual, and wise.
Always unsatisfied, you constantly try to better yourself.
You are also a seeker of knowledge and often buried in books.

You tend to be philosophical, looking for the big picture in life.
You dream of inner peace for yourself, your friends, and the world.
A good friend, you always give of yourself first.


This is so not me at the moment, or at least the first sentence certainly isnt't true. I just wanted to try out including this blogthings thing in a post. And it seems to work. Still have to figure out how to post pics cos I made a couple of South Park versions of me (with this South Park Studio linked in the sidebar) and I'd like to post them. I think I need a software called Hello. Hm. As if I didn't have enough things to do for the weekend ... I really need to write a list .... Argh!

Sonntag, 20. November 2005

DVDs

Borrowed the 3rd Harry Potter film on DVD from my sister. Really really loved it. Must admit I don’t remember the 2nd one very well. The 1st one was on TV recently, so I do remember that. Anyway, I found The Prisoner of Azkaban to be full of great ideas right from the start when Harry blows up Aunt Marge like a balloon. Then there was the purple Knight Bus, very cool as well. I liked the shrunken head, which was not in the book, I think. Also liked the way the Book of Monsters turned out on the screen. It was like an animal or some weird creature, biting and spitting out bits of paper and hiding under the bed. The dementors looked good, i.e. very scary. Very much like the Nazgul or Ringwraiths in The Lord of the Rings, though, but I won’t go into the similarities between the 2 series or I’ll never stop. Buckbeak turned out very well, too, I think. The only thing I didn’t really like was the way the werewolf looked that Lupin turned into. Very un-wolf-like, IMO. That’s all I can think of now.

There’s also a disc 2 in the set my sister has, and it contains lots of good extra features. Couldn’t figure out the interactive games, though, but the interviews and behind-the-scenes clips – such as a look at the animal trainers, at creating Buckbeak etc. – were very good. I didn’t watch all the interviews, but I really liked “the kids” as they seem to be referred to, i.e. Dan (surprised me they call him that instead of Daniel, which really isn't such a long name), Emma and Rupert. All 3 seemed to get along really well and appeared to be down-to-earth and still not used to their success and fame. Gary Oldman’s and David Thewlis’s interview together was great, too.

Um, yes, as always, I’m rambling on and on. Wanted to write a paragraph about the Batman Begins DVD, but I’ll save that for later cos I’ve only just started watching it anyway. Let me just say that there’s at least one little snippet of an interview with Christian Bale on disc 2. I think I’ll never get used to him speaking with an American accent. It always seems unnatural to me, no matter how good he is at it. In this interview bit he talks about the time before filming started and he quotes an English crew member who said something like “Are we shooting Fatman or Batman?” because CB had gone too far in putting weight back on after losing way too much (IMO) for The Machinist. Anyway, CB quotes this crew member and the English accent he uses when doing that is so funny!

Oh, and: Yay, normal HTML tags work, too! Writing < b > is so much shorter than < strong > (without the spaces, of course). (And yes, I'm still using Opera to browse the web and it doesn't show the formatting buttons.)

Freitag, 18. November 2005

First snow!

The title says it all, more or less. We've had the first snowfall of the year this afternoon. It looks pretty, all the trees outside are covered in white. I'm still at work. Don't know if it snowed where I live, too (about 30 km/20 miles away), but I think so. Hope I'll get home safely. My car has Winterreifen (tires for winter) already, but you never know.

Dienstag, 15. November 2005

just quickly...

As you can see, I've changed the template cos the old one (TicTac it was called, I think) looked too much like summer or spring with its fresh green and orange colours. So this now fits better for autumn and winter, I thought. Didn't dare to use a template not offered by Blogger itself cos I still don't know how to do certain things.

I wish I had more time to post more often. I really find myself thinking about new entries all the time. I'd like to post how much I hate driving in the dark, for example. Sounds exciting, right?! Kidding ...

Anyways, gotta get back to work.

ETA: just realized that Jeopardygirl uses the same template, but in pink and purple, for her NaNoWriMo novel .

Looked at the website for Christian Bale's new film The New World (which opens on Christmas in the US, I think). First impression after watching the teaser: looks like a cross between Last of the Mohicans and The Thin Red Line. Bale's nowhere to be seen, unfortunately. Just Colin Farrell and Pocahontas.

Sonntag, 13. November 2005

Working at the fair

Recently I worked at a big consumer fair for 9 days in a row. The regional (or local) radio and TV broadcaster I work for had a sort of “fair studio” there, i.e. a stage for quizzes and performances for the audience and a kitchen on a smaller stage next to it where chefs from local restaurants cooked a meal twice a day and people who had won tickets from local newspapers or our TV and radio shows could eat for free. It was pretty much like those numerous TV cook shows. There were also several camera men who filmed what was going on on the 2 stages and it was shown on one big screen at the side of the big stage and several TV screens all over our “area” at the fair so everyone in the audience could get a good view.

My job was to put up posters with the programme for the day in the audience area and backstage, fill balloons with helium for decoration and to give to visitors, put flyers on chairs and tables or hand them out to visitors, take pictures of the performing groups and interview guests and the chefs for our website (although the stupid webmasters used photos from last year mostly, which I wasn’t happy about cos I tried hard to get good photos and not being in the way of the camera men / staying “off screen” at the same time), help carry equipment and props on stage (tables and chairs, Aufsteller – no idea what that is in English), etc. etc..

What was hard for me to take, especially on the first few days, was the smell of different food wafting over our “area”. Sometimes it smelled like a fish restaurant, sometimes like at a fun fair (various candy smells) and so on. My feet hurt at the end of each day, too. I liked being allowed to walk in doors that had “Authorized personnel only” (Zutritt nur für Befugte) signs on them. One of the hosts was great. He’s a radio presenter/reporter and I’d worked with him before. He talked to everyone backstage and showed genuine interest in his interview guests and the cooking. The other host wasn’t very popular with basically everyone working backstage. He didn’t say hi to anyone, didn’t ask our names and once just shrugged his shoulders when I told him about the arrival of some guests. Pfft. After all, he needed to know who had arrived cos he needed to talk to the guests before their appearance on stage so he’d know what to ask them or what they wanted to talk about. He seemed so arrogant. And when he was the host for the day, we could never keep up with the schedule cos he kept blathering on for ages. He’s a TV presenter, of course. Only proves once again that radio people are nicer and more down to earth than TV people. I didn’t want to believe that when I first heard it, but it really seems to be true. Fortunately, the department I work for (public relations, press or marketing or whatever you want to call it) is in the radio building.

On the 9 days, I went by public transport. Normally, I go to work by car, but the fair center is in a part of town that I don’t know very well. I don’t like driving to places I haven’t been before and I don’t like driving in the dark. Okay, I had been there before, but my last visit to the fair with my parents was years ago so I didn’t remember how to get there. Going by train was easy cos there was an underground station just outside the main entrance and the train connection was okay (I had to change trains once). The train station is about 5 km (3 miles) from where I live. On the first day it was so foggy that I still don’t know how I got to the train station safely. Sitting on the train for about 30 minutes gave me the chance to listen to some of the CDs that I’ve bought lately but haven’t really had a chance to listen to. One of them was Coldplay’s “X & Y” album. It’s very, very good, but what I don’t like about them (and the same goes for R.E.M.) is that their CD booklets don’t include the song lyrics. So don’t ask me what their songs mean cos I have no idea. Okay, I admit that knowing the lyrics doesn’t necessarily mean understanding them, but it would make it a bit easier. And yes, I know that I can find all the lyrics on the internet, but I don’t have a printer connected to my computer at the moment, and it would take a while to find the lyrics, copy and paste them into MS Word, format them the way I want them, save them on a disc, go into the other room where my old laptop computer is (to which the printer is connected) etc. etc. Sorry, rambling mode … Anyways, Coldplay are great.
I also listened to the new Robbie Williams CD, “Intensive Care”. It’s not as bad as some reviews said, but I haven’t quite got used to it yet. Don’t have a favourite song yet and still like his other albums better. And I still haven’t watched my tape with his live performance in Berlin, which was the world-exclusive CD launch concert or something. But then, I still haven’t watched the tape with the concert in Knebworth (England) from the Escapology open air tour 2003 either although I did go to one of the German gigs of that tour and totally loved it.
Another CD I listened to was “Chariot” by Gavin DeGraw. I read about him in Zach Braff’s wonderful blog, but didn’t know any of his songs. At least I think I didn’t, although “I don’t want to be” apparently is the theme song to the WB show One Tree Hill and I think I’ve seen the pilot episode of it, so I must have heard it before, but I didn’t remember it. Then I heard “Chariot” and “I don’t want to be” on the radio and was hooked. The album is great. He does sound like Maroon 5, but I don’t mind cos I like them as well.
And then there was Nek’s latest album. It’s called “Una Parte Di Me” (a part of me). He’s an Italian singer. I think he says he’s the Sting of Italy, but I don’t think he sounds a lot like Sting (although I wouldn’t mind that). His real name is Filippo Neviani, I think. Don’t know why he calls himself Nek. K is not a common letter in Italian. Anyway, he’s got dark hair and blue or green eyes, which is often a sexy combination, and very much so in his case. His albums sound very much alike (i.e. he doesn’t re-invent himself with almost every album like Robbie Williams or Madonna), but I don’t mind. “Miss California” by Dante Thomas was just on the radio. He did a duet with Nek on the “Le Cose Da Diffendere” album and both my sister and I love this song very, very much. It’s called “Cielo e Terra” (Heaven and Earth, although it could be sky and earth as well cos most languages don’t make a difference between sky and heaven, i.e. have just one word for it) and I could listen to it all day.

Dienstag, 8. November 2005

9 Layers of me

Working 9 days in a row is over. Yay! Got Monday and Tuesday off work. Yay again. Still, the days are just too short (i.e. I still watch too much TV or tape too many shows so it's hard to catch up with the latest episodes of Lost, Ed, Judging Amy, etc.).

Topic: Read Secret Earthling's and Cissa Fireheart's 9 Layers and wanted to write down mine.

Layer One

Name: bilingualblahgirl

Birthdate: December 31, 1975, 9:13 p.m. = 21.15 Uhr (I think)

Birthplace: Germany

Current Location: Germany

Eyes: green and brown, although most people think they’re just brown

Hair: light brown (dyed a darker shade of brown with some highlights at the moment)

Height: 5' 2" (I think) = 1,57 m

Right handed

Zodiac sign: Capricorn. Aszendent weiß ich nicht.

Layer Two

Heritage: Don’t really know. German, I think, and probably Polish from both my mum’s and dad’s side of the family. My mum’s maiden name definitely used to be Polish and her family had it changed before Hitler started persecuting Jews and Poles. So now everybody who’s got that name is related to me. We even have some relatives in the USA. One of them e-mailed my aunt last year but they didn’t stay in touch for a long time. I looked for them on the web a while ago. I think most of them live in Wisconsin.

Shoes today: Just socks at the moment. The shoes I wear indoors are some kind of Birkenstock copy.

Weaknesses: I always find it hard to describe or categorize or define myself. Hm … being shy or not having good social skills, making things more complicated than they are, not taking chances, i.e. being afraid of too many things, etc., etc. Why is there no question about my strengths? That’s kind of unfair, isn’t it?

Fears: Not finding a job when my current one ends in March 2006, hitting another deer or other animal when driving in the dark, and a couple of other things that are too personal to list here.

Perfect pizza: I like pizza Hawaii (ham and pineapple) and pizza with mushrooms, sweet corn, zucchini and red pepper (and cheese and tomatoes of course, but I think that goes without saying).

Goals: find a job, get an apartment of my own.

Layer Three

Your most over-used AIM phrase: I don’t IM a lot anymore, so I don’t really have one.

First waking thought: “I wanna stay in bed a bit longer.” Very original, right? ;-)

Best Physical feature: Don’t know. My waist?

Most missed memory: Spending a lot of time with my best friend at college. We hardly see each other anymore at the moment because I live too far away.

Layer Four

Pepsi or Coke: Coke.

McDonald's or Burger King: I don’t like the fries at McDonald’s, but I hardly ever to go either of them and I hardly ever eat burgers at all.

Single or group dates: I don’t go on dates very often, so I can’t really say.

Adidas or Nike: I never had a pair of either of them. If I was patriotic, I’d have to say Adidas.

Lipton Iced Tea or Nestea: Neither. I make my own lemon or peach tea in the summer.

Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate.

Cappucino or Coffee: I like both, but don’t drink a lot of coffee. Never more than 1 or 2 cups a day. I like tea, too. Just bought a cherry flavoured rooi tea that smells delicious. Haven’t tried it yet, though.

Layer Five

Do You/Have You/Did You:

Smoke? Never.

Swear? Yes. I say “Herrgott” or Herrgott Sakra” a lot (don’t know where that came from , I never used that word in particular before), although I always remember my grandpa not liking it at all when I used swear words that abused the name of the Lord.

Sing? I like to sing along to music in the car.

Shower everyday? It depends. More like every other day. What’s next, how often I change my underwear??

Ever been in love? Don’t know. (Thank God no one said there’s a limit as to how often you can use this answer, ha ha.)

Want to go to college? Already have.

Like High School? It was okay.

Want to get married? Do you want me to make a list of the pros and cons of marriage as an institution? I’m kind of undecided about it.

Believe in Yourself? Sometimes.

Get motion sickness? Sometimes.

Think you're attractive? I like how Jen put it. I kind of feel the same way, although probably a bit more negative about myself.

Are you a health freak? No. I don’t do any sports, but try not to eat things with loads of fat in them.

Get along with your parents? Yes, I guess. Judging from what I hear from friends sometimes, I can’t complain. My mum is a control freak, though, which isn’t the easiest thing to live with.

Like thunderstorms? Not really, they’re pretty frightening.

Play an instrument? I can play the Bockflöte. What’s that again in English? Register or something strange like that. I don’t play it anymore really, only around Christmas with my sister. We play “Macht hoch die Tür” zweistimmig (she plays the melody and I accompany her) and always end up laughing our butts off cos there’s one part we never get right. I wish I could play the piano.

Layer Six

In the past month: (Does that mean the past 4 weeks or the 1st week of November?)

Drank alcohol? Yes. A glass of wine, or two.

Smoked? As I said before, never.

Done a drug? No.

Made out? No.

Gone on a date? No.

Gone to the Mall? No.

Eaten an entire box of Oreos? I don’t know what Oreos are, but normally I don’t eat whole boxes of cookies or chocolates in one go.

Eaten sushi? No.

Been on Stage? Well, that could be a yes if you count working backstage and helping with carrying chairs and tables and decoration on stage.

Been dumped? No.

Gone skating? No.

Made homemade cookies? No.

Skinny dipping? You gotta be kidding. Of course not.

Stolen anything? I took a couple of pens and notepads with me that the company I work for gave away for free at the fair where I worked for the last 9 days. In most cases, I asked if I could have the pen or notepad or other small giveaway, so I don’t really think that counts as stealing.

Layer Seven

Ever:

Played a game that required the removal of clothing? Might have. Don’t remember for sure.

Been trashed or extremely intoxicated? No. (So I guess I should be able to remember the answer to the question above, but I really don’t.)

Been caught "doing something?" I don’t know what you mean.

Been called a tease? Yes, I think so.

Gotten beaten up? No. At least I don’t remember it. Oh, wait, does fighting with my sister count?

Shoplifted? Not really.

Changed who you were to fit in? I try to wear clothes that fit the occasion, but I can’t really change who I am. Do I sound like a philosopher now? Hm. Now I think I don’t understand the question.

Layer Eight

Age you hope to be married: I have no idea. 35?

Number and Names of children: I don’t have any yet. I don’t want more than 2, I guess. Or maybe none at all. I like names you can use in different languages, like Sarah or Sophie/Sophia or Anna or Hanna or Lena. For a boy, I don’t know. I also like Gaelic sounding names like Moira or Fiona or … I just can’t think of any male names today obviously … Anyway, I wouldn’t give my kid a name no-one can pronounce. I don’t want a too common name either, though. Okay, enough about that…

Describe Dream Wedding: I’m very pale so I’d probably look even paler in white. Now can we please stop talking about marriage and children?

How do you want to die? I guess most people want to die a more or less painless death, and I’m no exception.

Where do you want to go to college? As I said before, I already went. My university was founded in 1965 (I think), so the buildings were very ugly. Pure concrete. So it’d be nice to see what it’s like to go to an old university with a lot of tradition. Something like Heidelberg or Jena or so. Or on an international level, Harvard or Yale or Oxford or Trinity College in Dublin. Not that that’s ever going to happen, but never mind.

What do you most want to be when you grow up? Happy. I’m beginning to think these questions are for 15 year olds because they assume I’m not grown up or married yet.

Country you'd most like to visit? Australia or New Zealand.

Layer Nine

Number of:

Drugs taken illegally: Zero.

People you trust with your life: Not many. Maybe 5 or so. What’s meant by “trust with your life” anyway?

CDs owned: I’m not sure. Maybe 100 or 150.

Piercings: None.

Tattoos: None, and I don’t want any.

Times your name has appeared in the paper: Hm. Never, I think. But I think I’ve been in 2 group photos.

Scars on your body: Don’t know exactly. One on my forehead, a couple of very small ones on my arms, and probably some more.


Dear computer, please don't eat my post again!!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...