My word cloud

Found this in Mike's blog. Originally comes from here.

I like that it is bilingual, hehe. But I forgot to change german(y) into the proper spelling with capital letters. Oh well, I'll survive ...

Lesson 1 in German culture: Fasching

Also called Karneval or Fastnacht or a couple of other locally specific names.

What you could compare it to: Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, or Venice, Italy, or Mardi Gras in New Orleans, USA.

What it is: an old tradition, but for me a crazy time (between today and next Tuesday, but some parties and balls take place earlier) where people put on costumes and party, i.e. drink as much as they can and dance to the stupidest songs you can imagine. (As you can probably tell, I’m a Faschingsmuffel, i.e. I don’t like Fasching.) Next Wednesday is Aschermittwoch (Ash Wednesday) and the beginning of lent, so the craziness will be over. Today is actually Weiberfasching (also called Fettdonnerstag or unsinniger Donnerstag) where women are allowed to cut off men’s ties.

There are also big Umzüge (parades) in cities like Köln (Cologne) or Düsseldorf. And big Prunksitzungen (sessions or galas) where different acts perform, mostly dance groups à la the dancers in Moulin Rouge and comedians who make fun of politicians or comment on current topics in a humorous way, sometimes in rhymes. Some of the parades and galas are broadcast live on TV.

For more info, see Wikipedia's English entry for Carnival

Man darf Rudolph(ine) zu mir sagen

Ich bin zwar nicht zum Rentier mutiert, aber total erkältet. Wie immer fing es mit etwas Halsschmerzen an, das war Montagmorgen. Dienstag war dann der Schnupfen da und er ist auch noch nicht weggegangen. Ein Nasenloch ist immer verstopft und meine Nase ist total rot. Ganz toll. Ansonsten fühl ich mich nicht allzu schlapp und gehe auch ganz normal ins Büro. Aber ohne Schnupfen wäre mir das Leben trotzdem lieber …

In English:
I’ve got a cold. It started with a sore throat on Monday and turned into a cold on Tuesday. My nose is bright red and one nostril is always blocked or clogged up. I feel okay, though, and do turn up for work every day. Still I want the cold to go away quickly!

Girls-only blogthings

Your Love Song Is

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson "Maybe you've been through this before But it's my first time so please ignore The next few lines cause they're directed at you I can't always be waiting, waiting on you I can't always be playing, playing your fool" You've been waiting for love, and you're not going to wait any longer!

What Love Song Are You?

I like that result cos Jack Johnson is cool and I've got his album. His music does tend to make me feel sleepy, I must admit. Same with Norah Jones.

You Are Winter!

Intelligent Serious Cozy Calm Shy

What Season Are You?

Your Element is Earth

Your power color: yellow Your energy: balancing Your season: changing of seasons Dedicated and responsible, you are a rock to your friends. You are skilled at working out even the most difficult problems. Low key and calm, you are happiest when you are around loved ones. Ambitious and goal oriented, you have long term plans to be successful.

What Element Are You?

No surprise there. My zodiac sign Capricorn is an earth sign.

Your Perfume is Glow

Fresh, sexy, and clean. You're real, intimate, and exciting. Your lush sensuality appeals to men... And you're as sexy as Jennifer Lopez. Power scents: Orange flower, grapefruit, and citrus.

What Perfume Are You?

Wow, that's a surprise. The things stated above don't apply to me, but I do have this perfume. I didn't buy it for myself, though, it was a gift. I don't like J.Lo except in some of her earlier films, but I must admit Glow smells good. It's not my favourite perfume, however. I prefer the one by Cindy Crawford.

You Don't Have a Boyfriend Because You are Too Shy

When a guy gets to know you, he finds a great catch Problem is... you're too shy for most guys to get to know. From meeting someone to dating, you usually have your guard up. And while you're just holding back, it makes you seem like you've got something to hide.

Why Don't You Have a Boyfriend?

Pff, could have told you so before.

Let's move on to a non-girly blogthing:

Well, You Know What a Blog Is...

You got 4/8 correct! But, truthfully, most blogs probably bore you.

How Much Do You Know About Blogging?

This surprised me, I must admit. I hate that they don't tell you the correct answers in these kind of quizzes after you've completed them.

more blogthings

I'm obviously addicted to blogthings. Especially the name generators. Or maybe I simply didn't have the time to think up a "real" post cos my computer crashed twice yesterday and I was mad about that. I can't even remember what I wanted to post about now. I'm so forgetful. Oh wait, I wanted to say that I put down 2 movie posters I'd had on my bedroom walls for ages and put up others. The ones I took down were The Truman Show and The Wonderboys. I still think The Truman Show is a great film, but I put up The Talented Mr. Ripley instead for a change. As to The Wonderboys, good film, too, but I just couldn't stand seeing Katie Holmes anymore. I really liked her as Joey Potter in Dawson's Creek, but the thing with Tom Cruise just put me completely off her. So I put the Down With Love poster up instead. Ewan McGregor is great and the film is fun.

Okay, so now let's see my different names:

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Ululani Peni

What's your Hawaiian Name?

Your Irish Name Is...

Jade Ryan

What's your Irish Name?

I think that sounds like a character in a tv series. Could be the child of Tess Silverman McLeod and Nick Ryan in the great Australian drama series McLeod's Daughters, hehe. (The show just started here a couple of weeks ago, but it's been running for years in Oz so I know that Tess will end up with Nick.)

Your Elf Name Is...

Sassy Fluffernutter

What's Your Elf Name?

Your Band Name is:

The Barnyard Falafel

Band Name Generator

Your Japanese Name Is...

Oki Konoe

What's your Japanese Name?

I don't like Mondays

... zumindest nicht, wenn ich im Büro mal wieder alles vermassele. War heut wieder so ein Tag. Sehr frustrierend. Hab de facto die Arbeit der kompletten Abteilung (okay, wir sind nur 5, wenn's hochkommt) blockiert. Und außer "es tut mir leid" ist mir auch nicht viel eingefallen. Ich hasse sowas. Hoffentlich kann das Problem morgen behoben werden ... Zu allem Überfluss ist auch noch 'ne wichtige Woche mit Terminen, zu denen bestimmte Sachen einfach fertig sein müssen, was durch mich gefährdet ist ... Hilfe!

In English: I screwed up at work again. Due to my stupidity, the whole department (okay, only 5 people when everybody's there) was unable to do their work. Argh. I hope we can fix the problem tomorrow.

P.S. I do like the song after which I named this entry. One of the best 80's songs. Great piano.

Zur Abwechslung noch was Amüsanteres, aus dem ich allerdings nicht so ganz schlau werde:

English: one more blogthing. Was that the questionaire with all the animal answers?? I'm not so sure the statements are true for me.

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored. You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy. You would be forced to break up with someone who was insecure and in constant need of reassurance. Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something that will confine you. You are afraid of marriage. In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

You Are Curling

What you lack in athleticism, you make up for in concentration. And while curling isn't much more of a sport than bowling, you *can* win a gold medal for it!

What Winter Sport Are You?

Ha, this one was sooo clear!! I knew the result before I completed this. Heh.

As you probably know, the Winter Olympics in Turin (German name) or Torino (Italian name) just started. My Dad watches sports on TV all the time. I'm looking forward to watch a bit of the ice-skating ... no, wait, it's called figure skating ... competitions. Germany already won 2 gold medals yesterday. One was in biathlon (cross-country skiing and shooting).

Speaking of sports, Germany played against France in the first round of the tennis Davis Cup this weekend. We lost 3-0. I like Tommy Haas, one of our players. He used to have long hair worn in a ponytail, but now he's got it cut and I don't know what to think of that. Makes him look younger, somehow. I couldn't find any good pics where you can see his hair before and after so I can't show you what I'm talking about unfortunately.

Something entirely different I wanted to say: I'm so addicted to downloading stuff! Yesterday I downloaded several new skins for my Opera browser, today it's themes for Thunderbird Mail. And I've discovered this new open source media player Songbird. I'll have to stop myself from downloading that. I can't listen to music on my computer very well anyway cos one of the audio codecs is broken somehow and I don't know how to fix it.

Blah. Enough rambling for this weekend!

You Are 70% "Average American"

You are average because you don't think people should be jailed for using marijuana. You are not average since you live more than three miles away from McDonalds.

How "Average American" Are You?

Ha! Blogthings is lying cos of course I'm not American at all. But I guess this shows that the Western world in general is very Americanized (if that's a word).

Your 1920's Name is:

Mercedes Margarette

What's Your 1920's Name?

Cool. Good name.

Who Should Paint You: Andy Warhol

You've got an interested edge that would be reflected in any portrait You don't need any fancy paint techniques to stand out from the crowd!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

Hm, Warhol is okay with me, but I'm surprised by this result. I said I wanted to be painted in light colours by sunrise so I expected to get Monet. Strange.

Snow blogging, again

My guilty conscience is bugging me. When I got up today, my dad said there was too much snow and I should take the day off from work. I looked out the window. It had snowed all night and was continuing to snow, and it was windy, too. Hm.

The situation is not as bad here as in other parts of Germany, though, where there’s Katastrophenalarm, i.e. catastrophe/disaster alert, if you want the literal translation, or an emergency situation or whatever you call that. The administration had to announce that so they could call the Bundeswehr (federal army) to help shovel the huge amounts of snow off the roofs of buildings. Some have caved in already this winter, and in one case, people died because they were ice-skating in the place that broke down. People say we haven’t had this much snow for 40 years. And that’s what you call global warming, then?

As I said, other counties are worse off than we here, so I couldn’t decide whether to really stay home or go to work. So I wandered around the house for 10 minutes and then went back to bed. Of course, I was unable to fall asleep again, so I got up again about half an hour later. I called my boss at work, but as it was only 7.30 a.m., she wasn’t in yet. (I have to be there at 9 a.m., but she's there earlier normally.) I stayed up, went into the bathroom and had breakfast afterwards. The coffee I had made me feel hyperactive. I tried to reach my boss repeatedly and could finally get her on the phone at 9.15 a.m. She said it was okay that I stayed home, but she and my co-workers probably think it’s just an excuse so I can have a longer weekend. I don’t want them to think that. Damn.

To my defense, I should add that I felt pretty dizzy last night before I went to bed. I have low blood pressure and changes in the weather often have that effect. So it could happen again today. Earlier, when I talked to my boss, it had stopped snowing, but now it started again.

Another reason why I feel bad is that one of my co-workers lives in an area where they’ve had much more snow all week. She now comes to work by public transport and it takes her 2 hours for one way – twice as long as by car. So, shouldn’t I have gone by public transport, too? Well, the problem with that is that the bus route goes over a hill that is always a problem when the weather is bad. And no bus goes directly to the city where I work. I once went to work by public transport and took the train. But the train station is 6 km from here and that’s the worst part of my route cos it goes along b roads.

Blah. I feel like what I'm writing doesn't make much sense. I'll post it anyway, just because. Sigh.

Germany's Next Topmodel

Ich hatte in jeopardygirl's Blog schon mal erwähnt, dass ich mich auf die deutsche Ausgabe dieser Sendung freue. Sie ist jetzt letzte Woche angelaufen. Von anfangs 30 Kandidatinnen sind noch 10 übrig. Siehe hier.
Die offizielle Seite findet man bei Pro7.

Ich mag Lena M. am liebsten (Bilder ganz unten, obere Reihe ganz rechts). Anne, eine der Ausgeschiedenen, fand ich sehr hübsch, was Gesicht und Haare angeht, aber sie war ja so spindeldürr, das geht ja gar nicht! Nur Haut und Knochen, nee nee!

Heidi Klum als Moderatorin und Jury-Mitglied find ich super. Ich find sie sowieso sehr sympathisch, immer freundlich und gut drauf.

In English:
The German version of America's Next Topmodel started last week. It's presented by Heidi Klum, who I like very much - and not only because she's German. She's just always friendly and in a good mood.

For pictures of the candidates, see the 2 links posted above. The 2nd link is to the network that airs the show.

My favourite of the girls is Lena M. (in the gallery at the bottom of the page of the first link she's the one at the far right in the top row). One of the girls who didn't make it to the 3rd round, Anne, was very pretty as far as face and hair go, but she was sooo skinny, it was unbelievable. I hate that.

zwei Blog-technische Sachen

Das Folgende wollte ich schon gestern schreiben, aber dann wurde ich mal wieder rausgeschmissen. Mein Modem (oder was immer der Grund ist für die schlechte Verbindung bzw. die Probleme ist) nervt mich.

1. Juhu, ich hab's geschafft, die Farbe der Post-Überschriften von diesem komischen rotbraun in karmin zu ändern! Bin stolz auf mich, haha.

2. Mich nervt, dass es kein richtig deutsches Datumsformat gibt, bzw. wenn, dann nur ohne den Wochentag. Da gibt es z.B. 04.02.2006, denn so schreibt man nun mal das Datum in Deutschland. Mit Wochentag müsste es dann "Samstag, 04. Februar 2006" heißen. In der Form gibt's das aber nicht zur Auswahl. Naja, kann man nix machen.

In English:
I'm proud to announce that I've managed to change the colour of the post titles from brown-ish (maroon) to pink.
The other thing is: it bugs me that the date isn't properly German. We normally put the day in front of the month (as in the German version above). I think that's way more logical than what the English-speaking world does because you go from the smallest thing to the biggest (i.e. from day to month to year and not month, day, year).

ETA: forgot to say that the font looks different depending on the browser. The letters stand closer together using IE, but look normal with Opera. Strange.

nur schnell...

... ein lustiger Link

http://www.cineworld-main.de/news/50837595920d8c62f/index.html

Auf dieser Seite kann man nachlesen, was einige Kinobesucher aus Filmtiteln machen, wenn sie nicht so viel Ahnung haben (z.B. Fluch der Titanic). Hab selber noch nicht alles gelesen, sah aber ganz witzig aus soweit.