End of the year blah

Sorry, long time no post.

Update: Christmas was okay. I was at my parents' place on the 24th and 25th. My sister's boyfriend was there, too, for the first time. We played some board games. Very exciting : )

As presents, I got loads of DVDs. Most of them Clive Owen films, and of course the Prison Break Season 1 box. Yay. Love the audio commentaries. Unfortunately there's none by Wentworth Miller. I wonder why. Hm. Too bad. The specials on disc 6 are very interesting as well. They were the first thing I watched when I got home on the evening of the 25th.

On Wednesday I met up with a friend/former co-worker. We hadn't seen each other in over a year, I think, so we had a lot of catching up to do. So we sat in a Starbucks for hours and talked. The Creme Brulee Latte was too sweet for me, though. And the next day I went shopping with my sister and we also went to Starbucks cos I felt like I was still half asleep, but what did I do instead of ordering some "normal"-tasting coffee? I go for the Vanilla Latte. Too sweet as well. Yuck. The Christmas Blend they sell tastes good, though. Bought a bag cos I thought it had some spices in it (cinnamon etc.). That's not the case, though. Whatever.

Still haven't seen 3:10 to Yuma. Wanted to go tonight but I have a headache. Argh.

The usual blah

First of all, I'd like to reply to 2w10's comment to the post below: As I think I mentioned, I need to use the Germain railway next Saturday. As far as I know, the most recent news was that they wouldn't go on strike again until Dec 3. I really have no idea what I'm gonna do if they start striking again after that. Okay, I do have a car ... but I'm an awful driver. And I paid 50 bucks for the train ticket already.
Christmas ... I don't know. I'm not feeling christmassy yet. But I did bake cookies with my mum yesterday. And I just ordered some stuff from Amazon as presents for a couple of people. But as I'm not feeling good today I'm not in the mood for anything. Oh, but I put a kind of Adventskranz on my living room table. It's not really a Kranz, but a Gesteck with 4 candles that my mum made. It comes in the classic Christmas colours green, gold and red and smells good.

What else? 2 movies are coming up that I'm looking forward to: 3:10 to Yuma (Todeszug nach Yuma) starring Christian Bale. I had heard of it but had no idea it is a Western and starting so soon here! Love CB in turn-of-the-century type movies cos I just like the clothes and think he looks good in it. The other one is Elizabeth part 2 - The golden kingdom or whatever it's called. Saw a picture of Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh in a magazine yesterday. Hot. Both films are opening on Dec 13 in Germany. Speaking of Clive Owen, I watched Derailed on DVD last weekend ... oh boy ... not very enjoyable. Owen plays a quite weak character - a man who is blackmailed by a guy who always wants more -
and that just doesn't go very well with my idea of Clive Owen who to me seems quite strong and masculine etc.
Hm, now I sound as if Clive is a bad actor. That was not my intention. I can't really explain it, it was just a strange film.

Need coffee. Only had decaf this morning. Am tired. Can't form complete sentences. Hehe.

This and that

Changed the look of the blog again. The one before was just too pink. I like the brown but I tweaked the colours a bit. Don't really like the beige / light brown tone of the background at the left and right, but it'll have to do.

Been over to Cissa's blog (link on the right) - hadn't looked at it for a way too long time. Bad cyber-friend, me. Sorry Cissa. I miss you and the other former Baleheads but work and my stupid slow computer / internet connection get in the way (I'm only online for an hour or 2 on the weekend).

What else? Wanted to post a blogthing quiz yesterday but they were all way too stupid. What's your Mexican name? No, thanks.

Weather report: Snow! As I go to work by car, I'm not too enthused. But it looks nice outside with the trees covered in white. Also, German rail is still on strike. If this continues until December 8 I'll be very mad cos I'm going to meet a friend that day and we both already bought our train tickets. (We're meeting in a city sort of in the middle of where we both live.).

New songs: hm, not much I can think of except for Shadow of the Day by Linkin Park.

Good new songs

Here I am again with my own personal song recs:

How far we've come - Matchbox 20: great energetic song, excellent for turning up loud and singing along to in your car.

About you now - Sugababes: Pure pop, very catchy, a good mood song.

La vida es un ratico - Juanes: Not a single release (yet), but the title track of his new album which was released last Friday. Very good album on the whole. There's even a duet with a German singer on it (Campino from the band Die Toten Hosen). Yay.

Grand Avenue and Jennifer Garner

First thing: just discovered a Danish band called Grand Avenue. Their song "The Outside" was on Bremen Vier (a radio station from Bremen, a town in the north of Germany) and I was almost 100% sure this was the new Coldplay single. Which of course it wasn't. Guess Chris Martin is too busy with his private life (you know, wife Gwyneth and 2 kids). Too bad. Anyway, go check out http://www.grandavenue.dk/ for some sound bites if you need something if you're on Coldplay withdrawal. Hm, hope that sentence means what I want it to mean. What do you call a Lückenfüller in English? If it was a person, I'd say a rebound guy/girl. Hm. Anyway, they sound very much like Coldplay or Keane. Not that that's bad, but a little bit of your own style is a good thing, too.

Second thing: Jennifer Garner will be live on German TV the coming Saturday! She and Jamie Foxx will be promoting Operation: Kingdom or whatever that film's called. The show they will be on is one of Europe's biggest Saturday night shows Wetten, dass ... All sorts of stars have been there as guests (Madonna, Michael Jackson, Hugh Grant, etc.) before and the show always gets a share of 40% and about 12 million viewers (which is a lot for Germany). It's also broadcast live in Switzerland and Austria. The host is a guy called Thomas Gottschalk. Used to like him a lot but I now think his interviews completely lack any kind of substance. Anyway, I still like Jennifer Garner (I was a huge fan of her show Alias and still enjoy watching it) even though I don't understand what she (or anybody, for that matter) sees in Ben Affleck. She's beautiful and seems like a sweet and fun person. So I'm looking forward to Saturday. Even though I might have to tape the show cos my sister wants to go see the new Pixar film Ratatouille that night.

blogthing test on music

Your Taste in Music:

Adult Alternative: High Influence80's Alternative: Medium Influence90's Pop: Medium Influence80's Pop: Low Influence90's Alternative: Low Influence

How's" Your Taste in Music?

Hm. Interesting. Weird list of artists to chose from, though. Of course the music styles we use in our studies are much better : )

Still alive, don't worry

Wow, long time no new post ... I think I wanted to post another "songs I like/new song recs" entry 2 weeks ago but forgot about it. I even made a list for that already. Hm, let me see, what were the songs ....

H-Blockx - Countdown to insanity: They're a German band who've been away for awhile. Now they're back and I love the song. Great for playing loud in your car.

Plain White T's - Hey there Delilah: Ah, so nice ... the band is from Chicago and the song is to a former girlfriend who moved away or something. Bittersweet. Love it.

Colbie Caillat - Bubbly: She's like the female Jack Johnson. Or Jack Johnson meets Norah Jones or something. Very mellow. Apparently became popular through myspace.

Juanes - Me enamora: Yay, been waiting for his new stuff! The first single sounds very much like La Camisa Negra from the last album Mi Sangre. I don't mind.

Crowded House - Don't stop now: Saw them perform this at Live Earth. Wasn't sure if it was a new song or an old one I hadn't heard before. Turned out it is new. Sadly, only one station here plays it at all, although I find it quite catchy.

Hm, well, that is not the list as it was 2 weeks ago, but I can't help that now.

What else? I'm still very obssessed with Prison Break / Wentworth Miller. Saw an interview he did for Dutch TV. When he mentioned he'll come to Germany in October, the interviewer - a guy called Robert Jensen - dissed us. Can't remember exactly what he said except for the fact that he mentioned David Hasselhoff. Argh. Yes, Hasselhoff had a hit here with the awful song I've been looking for freedom, but that was 20 years ago. We're not into him anymore, thank you very much. Someone should have told Wentworth there's a rivalry between Germany and Holland. Now he'll be all confused. Haha, I'm just kidding. He's been here before and he's smarter than that.

Okey dokey, that's all for now. Gotta get back to work for a little while before I go home.

Songs I like at the moment

Linkin Park - What I've done: Totally love Linkin Park, especially in my car. Still haven't got any of their albums. But the anger and pain in their music kinda fit my recent mood. Okay, that sounds very dark. I don't know, I just relate to their music right now somehow. Not that I've been abused or anything ... I don't know ... I just like it. And not just What I've done, but also older stuff like Breaking the habit, Numb, etc.

Melanie C - Carolyna: Sounds like a Red Hot Chili Peppers song with a female vocal. I'm not a huge RHCP fan but Carolyna is good. Also love the lyrics of the chorus: "Carolyna, you've traveled so far, trying to escape the pain, start again where you are" or something along those lines.

Natasha Bedingfield - Soulmate: Okay, this is becoming a deeper and darker post than intended ... it's a beautiful song and I have to try hard not to start crying when I hear it. Again, the lyrics speak to me, and her voice sounds so frail or something. Chorus: "Who doesn't long for someone to hold, who knows how to love you without being told. Somebody tell me why I'm on my own if there's a soulmate for everyone." 'Nuff said, I guess.

Maximo Park - Books from Boxes: Band from Newcastle, England, and you can totally hear the singer's northern English accent, which I love. Nice song.

Can't think of any more songs now. It's 5:30 p.m. and there's nothing urgent to finish at work, so I'll go home now. Bye!

Flooded

Sorry for the lack of updates. The past week has been pretty crazy. The weekend before last the area here was hit by heavy rain which caused flooding. Both my parents and my sister were affected, i.e. the basements of their houses were about a meter under water. No fun, I tell ya. I helped them as much as I could which wasn't easy cos I had to work.

I might post more later about the details, but for now I'll just say the rooms are empty now and are being dried by some company that brought equipment for that yesterday.

Exhausted

This week the weather’s been quite hot. Not a good thing when you’re stuck in a stuffy office. But what's good is that we can dress pretty casually, which means walking around barefoot is not a problem. I don’t think they predicted very high temperatures for today, but I found it especially awful today. Really stuffy. You could sense there was a thunderstorm coming, and it’s going on now. We had the same thing yesterday afternoon as well. First darkening sky, then storm and lightning, then heavy rain. Of course this must come on the one Friday I wanted to leave the office earlier than 5 p.m. Damn. I feel like I haven’t worked at all today. This morning we had our weekly English class – which was a total waste of time for me, as most times – so I basically only got to my desk at 9.30. Then our server was down for about 2 hours so all I could do was clean up the closet and put papers in folders and stuff like that. There was nothing urgent to work on, though, anyway, so it wasn’t too much of a problem. Then after lunch I tuned into another Canadian radio station cos we’re in the middle of preparing a study for a Canadian client. Well. I did do some other things but it’s so unrewarding when it’s nothing major.

Blah. Very interesting stuff, right? What I really wanted to say is that I’m very exhausted and tired at the moment. I guess I don’t get enough sleep. Oh, I don’t know. I really need to take a few days off. Argh.

New obsession

The excellent drama series Prison Break just started on German TV 2 weeks ago. RTL is airing it on Thursdays at 10:15 p.m. (always 2 eps in a row). The ratings have been pretty bad – especially given RTL’s high standards (they are the market leader, at least when it comes to 14-49 year-olds) – so I hope they won’t take it off the air again soon. That’s because I’m very obsessed by the show already. I had heard only good things about PB beforehand (on the internet and from a friend of mine who has already seen most of season 1) and it really is a great show. In the German press it’s been compared to 24 a lot. I don’t see too many similarities, but that doesn’t matter. The basic storyline is this: Michael Scofield, an engineer from Chicago, gets himself into prison in order to break out again – together with his brother who’s already in there for having killed the vice-president’s brother and whose execution is only about a month away. Wentworth Miller is excellent as Michael Scofield, and of course there is also a romantic storyline: the prison has a pretty female doctor, Sara Tancredi, played by Sarah Wayne Callies. So I ship MiSa, naturally. And yesterday I started looking for fanfiction and videoclips about the 2 of them. Thank goodness for YouTube, but damn my slow internet connection. And it’s hard to find something without seeing, hearing or reading spoilers, which is not a good thing with any show that builds on suspense and thrill and surprising twists or whatever you would call that (in German we have this word Spannung, which can mean tension or suspense, but it’s hard to find a good expression in English). Um, yeah, so this I my new obsession (besides Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice). Wentworth Miller has fascinating blue eyes and is very good at staring intensely at someone. Sigh.

Blah. So there, I’m a silly fangirl once again.

Ich kotz'!

Das ist neben „Herrgott!“ und „Kackzeug!“ einer meiner momentanen Lieblingsflüche und er scheint mir ganz angebracht, da ich mich gerade über diverse Sachen ärgere:
1. Eine Kollegin hat mich grad gefragt, wieso ich gestern nicht mit beim Herbert Grönemeyer Open Air war. Tja, weil ich nix davon wusste, dass jede Menge Freikarten vorhanden waren. Entweder kann mich jemand echt nicht leiden und hat die Mail extra nicht an mich geschickt oder jemand war einfach zu blöd, den Mail-Verteiler gescheit zusammenzustellen. Toll. Es wären sogar noch 2 Tickets da gewesen, denn ich hatte ja am Wochenende Besuch von 'ner Freundin und die hätte ich schlecht allein daheim lassen können. Idioten. Bin zwar nicht der größte Herbie-Fan, aber gemeinsame Unternehmungen mit den Kollegen sind eigentlich immer witzig und so hätte meine Freundin die ganzen Leute, von denen ich öfter rede, auch mal kennengelernt. (Was, wo und mit wem andere so arbeiten, ist ja immer irgendwie abstrakt, find ich. Naja, mein Büro und einen Kollegen hat sie heut früh noch kurz gesehen.)

2. Der Abfluss in meiner Küche ist verstopft. So erklärt sich wohl auch der mysteriöse Geruch der letzten Woche, den ich nicht zuordnen konnte. Jedenfalls kam am Samstag 2x während meiner Abwesenheit Dreck in der Spüle raus. Lecker. Drano Powergel hilft auch nix mehr. Muss meine Vermieterin anrufen.

3. Gestern hab ich mir in ein leckeres Eis gekauft, Sahne-Kirsch und Mango. Dann sind mir die Kugeln, nachdem ich noch nicht mal die Hälfte gegessen hatte, aus der Waffel auf den Gehsteig gefallen. Ganz toll. Meine Jacke hat natürlich auch was abgekriegt. Okay, darüber hab ich mich nicht wirklich 24 Stunden lang aufgeregt, aber es passt in die Liste.

4. Bin gestern im Kino fast eingeschlafen. Der betreffende Film war Zodiac. Hatte echt Mühe, die Augen offen zu halten für einen Großteil der Zeit. Muss nicht unbedingt nur am Film gelegen haben, aber teilweise sicher schon. War alles etwas zu langatmig, trotz guter Besetzung.

5. Mein PC macht nur noch Probleme. Wollte gestern Fotos auf 'ne CD brennen, was aber überhaupt nicht funktioniert hat. Die internen Laufwerke sind eh schon kaputt und jetzt geht wohl der externe Brenner auch nicht mehr. Oder es lag an der Brenn-Software. Keine Ahnung.

6. Da ich ne zu kurze Kassette genommen hab zum Aufnehmen, fehlt mir von der neuesten OC-Folge die Hälfte. Und es war natürlich der Staffelauftakt der „finalen Staffel“. Naja, kann man ja im Internet nachlesen, ist also nicht sooo schlimm.

7. Am Freitag hab ich mich von meinem Handy-Anbieter am Telefon zu einer "Tarif-Optimierung" überreden lassen. Bei sowas bin ich ja immer skeptisch, aber es klang ganz gut. Tja, und grad krieg ich ne SMS mit meiner neuen Festnetznr. Toll, davon war nie die Rede!! Wenn die mir gleich gesagt hätten, dass es sowas wie O2 Genion ist, hätte ich's nicht gemacht. (Ich hab jetzt mit meinem Handy für einen 2 km Radius um meinen Wohnort rum einen "Zuhause-Bereich", von dem aus ich kostenlos ins Festnetz und in mein Handynetz telefonieren kann.) Diese Deppen! Außerdem brauch ich ein Headset, weil ich sonst die Hände nicht frei hab. Argh.

8. Und jetzt das Beste: wieso muss ich genau die Auswertungen bzw. Diagramme, die ich noch nicht richtig kann bzw. für die ich immer ewig brauche, immer dann machen, wenn der Kollege, der mir helfen könnte, weg ist?! Letztes Mal war er ein paar Tage in München, jetzt ist er die ganze Woche in Singapur. Sehr clever. Dahin gibt's ja auch keine Zeitverschiebung und so. Naja, die Präsentation ist erst übernächste Woche, das wird schon irgendwie gehen. Ich möchte nur nicht wieder bis 7 Uhr abends total verzweifelt im Büro sitzen so wie letztes Mal. Naja, mal abwarten, wie’s geht.

So, genug gemeckert. Im Großen und Ganzen war das Wochenende sehr schön. Nürnberg hat 'ne echt schöne Altstadt und mit meinem Besuch war auch alles harmonisch. Wir sind beide total im Pride & Prejudice Fieber und können bald den Film und den Regiekommentar auswendig mitsprechen. Vorher hatte ich ja größte Vorurteile (haha), weil ich den BBC-Mehrteiler mit Colin Firth so gern mochte und Keira Knightley für zu jung hielt für die Rolle der Lizzie, aber sie und v.a. auch Matthew MacFadyen lassen einen die andere Verfilmung schnell vergessen.
English summary: the above is a list of things that are bugging me right now. They range from really small things (missed half an episode of The OC, almost fell asleep while trying to watch Zodiac) to bigger things like difficult tasks at work with no one to help and a blocked sink in my kitchen.

The week in review

So what have I been up to? In my week off I bought furniture: a foldable (if that's a word) dinner table, a desk and a cupboard for my bedroom. My sister and dad put the cupboard together on Sunday (my contribution: one drawer - I'm so bad at DIY). I've only put some towels in it so far. The other 2 pieces of furniture will be delivered in a couple of weeks.

Then there was a problem with my bank card. It made me feel really helpless not to be able to get any cash from an ATM. Luckily I found some cash in an envelope in my bedside cupboard. Later I remembered that I also have a credit card which should have worked at the ATM. I'm so clever.

On Saturday I went to Leipzig to meet my best friend who I hadn't seen in a year. I can tell you that going by train on the weekend before the G8 is not the biggest fun. To save money I had bought a cheap weekend ticket so I could only go by slower trains. I left at 5.50 a.m. and thought I'd have the train to myself. Well, wrong. In the seats closest to me were a couple of teenagers who were drinking beer at that early hour and one of them didn't shut up for the whole trip. I did have my discman with me so it was not too bad. Then I almost missed the connecting train but everything worked out and I arrived in Leipzig at 10 a.m. My friend and I first went to see the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, a huge monument in memory of the 120000 soldiers who died in a battle against Napolean in 1813. We climbed a spiral staircase to the platform at the top. 90 meters. Not fun given my unsporty condition. (Sorry, my English is getting worse ...) The view from the top was quite good, though. After that we walked around the city centre and I liked it a lot. Lots of pretty old buildings. There was also a city festival going on so there were lots of people around. The trip back to Nuremberg was good. And my friend will probably come visit me the weekend after next, which gets me into a bit of a panic because my apartment is still a mess.

This week meant back to work. It's not too stressful at the moment but my boss is coming back from vacation on Monday. Then he and the rest of the guys are off to the German Radio Day so I'll have the office to myself for most of next week. Knowing myself, I'll probably spend more time surfing the web than usual. Argh. No self discipline, I tell ya. Or maybe I'll be swamped with work, who knows.

Musicovery etc.

This week I read on www.radioszene.de about the newest development regarding Pandora and international users. Only people with an IP from the US and Canada can now register due to legal restrictions. I had been thinking about getting registered there or at last.fm but hadn’t done so yet. Now I’ve been looking for other options and came across www.musicovery.com (via an article at www.netzwelt.de). The website looks a bit like a colourful remote control. You can click in a mood area (the 4 extremes are calm, energetic, dark and positive) or choose decades or genres. If you point at a genre, you can also click somewhere between the 4 moods. I tried it for a while but found it hard to find something that suited my taste. The “stations” that started playing had a lot of unknown songs and/or artists in them. Maybe it would have helped to disable “non Hit”. Ah well, I couldn’t be bothered much longer.

Right now I’m trying last.fm (don’t know if it will stop playing after a while when I’m not registered). I entered Robbie Williams and am listening to a mix that includes Queen, Oasis, Keane, Bryan Adams, Anastacia, Alanis Morissette, No Doubt, U2, Green Day, Maroon 5 etc. Nice enough for me. Maybe a bit too mainstream, but what can you expect when you enter Robbie? I would have thought they’d mix in a few lesser known artists. Hm.

Oh, and I also tried a web-only channel offered by a German radio station (RPR 1) that is called New Songs. Yes, I did get new songs, but interrupted by long commercial breaks and news. No thanks.

Another thing I found yesterday is www.gnoosic.com where you enter 3 artists you like and they suggest others you might like. For each artist you can choose between “like”, “don’t like” and “unknown”. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t offer audio samples. That is even sadder because the results you get include lots of unknown bands (at least to me). But at the end you get a summary with links to Amazon so you might find audio clips there.

So much for my experience with personalized online radio or whatever you want to call it.

As to me:
The weather is really hot at the mo and I don’t like it much.
My fave soccer team is in the national cup final which takes place in Berlin on Saturday. Keep your fingers crossed.
I have next week off and will probably go to Leipzig for a day to meet my best friend who I haven’t seen for a year.

As always: must. learn. to. make. links!

Sad list

http://www.spinner.com/2007/05/03/the-25-most-exquisitely-sad-songs-in-the-whole-world-no-25/

Argh, I still haven't worked out how to make proper links. Anyway, I found this via www.digg.com (in the entertainment section).

My 2 cents:

• Don't know many of the songs in the list.
• Of those I do know, I definitely find Hallelujah very cry-worthy.
• 2 songs that are not in the list but come to my mind when I think of sad songs are River by Joni Mitchell and Goodnight Saigon by Billy Joel.
• More songs are coming to my mind: Time in a bottle by Jim Croce, Seasons in the Sun by ? and Streets of London by Ralph McTell, oh, and one that's not quite that old: The Living Years by Mike & The Mechanics.

Quick update

Am crazy busy, that's why I haven't posted anything for a while. Last week at work was really hell. Had to prepare a presentation that included types of charts I hadn't done before and the colleague who could have helped me was on a business trip. Friday I was in the office until 7 p.m. and was close to crying. But everything worked out fine in the end.

Next week won't be much better as another presentation is coming up.

In other news, the weather's been great for most of April, I haven't been to the skin doctor again although my psoriasis still hasn't gone away and I saw Music & Lyrics at the movies and loved it.

New mobile

I’ve got a new mobile phone. I always had Nokia mobiles up until now – first the 3210, then the 3310 (handed down to me from my sister), then the …. I can’t remember which model. Something with i at the end. Now my provider offered me 3 different models, all not the latest ones, though, but I picked one. 2 of them were Nokias, the 3rd one was a Motorola Razr V3 in pink, Swarovski edition. This means it’s dark pink and has a heart made of Swarovski crystals (or glass stones or whatever) on the front. I wasn’t sure at first because I’m not one of those type of girls we call Tussis in German. Think Paris Hilton. Lots of pink and kitsch and tacky clothes. But I wanted a mobile that stands out and the colour is not a girly light pink (schweinchenrosa we say in German, a Schweinchen being a piglet or small pig) but a darker shade. So I have a fashion mobile now. And it’s my first Klapphandy, i.e. the display is in the top half and the keys are in the lower half and you fold it in the middle. Ha, great explanation. Sorry. What sucks is that only about 10 numbers from my phone directory showed up when I put the old SIM card in it. Don’t know why that is. And I haven’t worked out how to send MMS. Couldn’t do it with my Nokia before, can’t do it now. Damn.

If I could have gotten any model, I’d probably have picked one of those Sony Ericsson Walkman mobiles, you know, the ones that are also an mp3 player. But the Motorola is okay. It has nice keys. They are flat but a good size. Most of the newer models have tiny keys. I’m not addicted to my mobile anyway. I just send a few text messages to my best friend or make short calls to my sister to say I’ll be late or something.

I think on TV you see a lot of people who use their mobile even if they’re in their apartment or office where they have “normal” landline phones they could use. As far as I know that would be much cheaper, but of course talking on a mobile looks so much cooler, right?

Here's a pic. The colour doesn't really look that bright. And mine has a crystal heart on it, as I said.


P.S.: Still can't post from Opera browser. This sucks big time.

Happy Easter! :-D

This was sent to me by my sister earlier today. Enjoy!

New music recs

Lots of good new songs this week:

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Desecration Smile – another catchy one after the one that won’t go away (yes, Snow)

Snow Patrol: Shut your eyes – took a while but I like it now. Have the album at home, should really listen to it more

Reamonn: Serpentine – they’re a German band with an Irish singer that’s been around for a couple of years and I’m liking them more and more

Kim Wilde: Together we belong – good catchy pop

Michael Bublé: Everything – he’s got a very recognizable and beautiful voice. The song sounds a lot like Norah Jones (which is meant positively)

Fergie: Big girls don’t cry – would never have guessed it’s her. It’s a ballad and she sounds like Natasha Bedingfield or Sugababes or something. Definitely better than her uptempo rhythmic/urban stuff.

Take That: Reach out – as la la la as all songs on their album. Fluffy happy sing-along pop.

Daughtry: Home and It’s not over – had no idea who that is. According to Wikipedia, he was on American Idol. Think Nickelback, The Calling etc.

Incubus: Love hurts – catchy rock ballad from a band that usually makes heavier music, I think

Christina Stürmer: Scherbenmeer - she's an Austrian singer who also started in a casting show. Really good angry song.


Also new, but not so good:

Pink: Dear Mr. President – sounds like a rip-off of Not ready to make nice by the Dixie Chicks

Bon Jovi: Make a memory – pretty lame

Erasure: I could fall in love with you – I recognized them immediately and the song’s not too bad, but seriously, we don’t need a comeback from them, do we?


As always, I might change my mind tomorrow : )

Germany’s Next Topmodel – Update

After 3 episodes, the situation is like this:

Enyerlina, who I really liked at first, turned out to be the biggest bitch of all. She took the whole “competition” idea way too seriously and tried to cheat in several ways. In ep 3, which aired yesterday, she was dismissed because she looked the same in all photos or something like that.

Fiona is still a drama queen, but she seems to be a nice girl all in all.

Anni definitely still is a bitch. If looks could kill, everyone on the show would be dead already.

Sophie, who IMO was a bit of a dark horse, left the show in ep 2. It seems she had some problems with her parents because she missed school due to her participation in the show. If you ask me, GNTM is a one in a million chance and having to repeat one school year isn’t the end of the world. And it really seemed Sophie wanted to stay. Heidi Klum didn’t even offer to talk to her parents about their concerns. She just said okay and goodbye and asked the other girls if they were thinking about quitting, too. One other girl raised her hand and left, too.

So, who’s my favourite now? I’m not sure. There’s a girl called Aneta who I didn’t really like at first, but she seems to be from the place where I went to university so I like her for that.

Next week, the girls will get make-overs, i.e. new haircuts. That’s always exciting.

Oh, and BTW, I think there should be a “Next Male Topmodel” show, just for the eye candy. Hehe.


As to me, my ankle is getting better. Still have a bandage but I can walk without limping. The bad thing is, this week I’ve been feeling very tired many times at work. Almost fell asleep at the doctor’s yesterday when I was sitting on a gurney (?) waiting for the doc to come and look at my foot. It’s normal for me to feel tired in the afternoon, but this week it’s been starting around 10 or 11 a.m. Not funny. Must get some sleep on the weekend.

Torn ligament ... or something

I hate going to the doctor, but this week I had to go twice. First I went to a dermatologist cos the psoriasis I had 5 years ago has returned. Then yesterday morning I twisted my ankle when I left the house. Didn't seem so bad at first, but by about 6 p.m. the ankle was swollen and started hurting. I tried to put it up and cool it, but without much success. Had an awful night cos I couldn't find a comfortable sleeping position. Went to the doctor in the morning. Have a tape bandage now. So I'm limping around the office cos I didn't want to stay at home and get bored. My arms and legs are still itching from the psoriasis rash thing, BTW. Argh.

Germany’s Next Topmodel, Season 2

The new season started last night on ProSieben. From the 15 girls remaining in yesterday’s episode (I think they started with the best 100 girls or something), there are 6 that stood out to me:

Biggest bitch: Anni, 21A blonde girl with quite dark and long eyebrows. You can see she’s very ambitious and competitive and very full of herself, i.e. she thinks she already knows how to walk and pose etc. Reminds me of Jamie King from Pearl Harbor.

Biggest drama queen: Fiona, 18A brunette who forgot the choreography when the girls had to do a sort of fashion show during halftime on the pitch of a soccer stadium. She was the first in line and walked straight from one side of the pitch to the other, instead of turning around in the middle, as Bruce Darnell, their catwalk coach, had told them. She made a huge thing out of it afterwards, i.e. she was mad at herself for not remembering the correct way. Part of me thinks she did wrong on purpose just so she could become the center of attention.

My favourites so far:
Sophie, 17, a very shy brunette with pretty dark blue eyes
Hana, 21, typical Slavic beauty with high cheekbones and sensual lips (think Eva Herzigova with brown hair)
Enyerlina, 25, an exotic beauty from the Dominican Republic. Seems really nice and I hope her age won’t be a problem.
Milla, 20, also quite exotic-looking, i.e. with darker skin and hair (not your typical German girl, in other words). She’s half-Chinese, according to the website.

At the end of the show I thought how shallow this whole competition is. And I’m sure many of the girls have eating disorders, although the jury (lead by Heidi Klum) does make a point of telling them to eat properly and last year did kick out one girl because she was too skinny. To my defense, I do consider the personality of the girls. But the season has just started and they’re not living together in the big house yet so you couldn’t find out too much about their personalities yet.

Sorry, don't know how to post pics of the girl, but at least here's a link to the show's website:
http://www.prosieben.de/lifestyle_magazine/next_topmodel/index.php

Best new songs

Sasha – Lucky Day
Mika – Grace Kelly
Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby
Jennifer Lopez – Que hiciste

Just my opinion, and it could change quickly cos last week I didn't like Grace Kelly yet.

Didn't think I'd ever put a J.Lo song in such a list, but I like Spanish stuff and the song's very catchy and has a good beat.

As to Sasha, concert recap will follow. The short version is that the crowd was extremely well-behaved (unlike what I was used to from NKOTB, Take That or Robbie Williams concerts), maybe even a little too un-enthusiastic for my taste, but it was okay. Sasha had a very bad cold, but was in a good mood (which was not because it was the last concert of his Greatest Hits tour, I hope). If my sister hadn't almost fainted in the middle of it all, it would have been a perfect night. But as it was, I had to drag her outside and find a paramedic, and I was feeling dizzy myself. She was okay again soon and we went back inside, but we had to watch the remaining 4 songs from the back which was way less fun than from the front where we'd been before (not the first row, but about 4 meters from the stage right where his microphone stand was). Um yes, maybe that was the long version already? Those who know me that I tend to ramble on and on. I do have more to say, so maybe some more things will follow. Blah.

Concert tonight

I'm going to a concert tonight with my sister. The singer I'll be seeing is Sasha. He's German but sings in English. I'm not a huge fan, but I was pleasantly surprised when I heard he's coming to the area I live in and so my sister gave me the tickets for Christmas. Sasha's also got a fun side project, Dick Brave & The Backbeats, where he does rockabilly cover versions of all sorts of songs, from Avril Lavigne's Complicated to Bobby Vee's Take Good Care of My Baby. But now he's left his alter ego Dick Brave behind and has become Sasha again. The current tour is a sort of Greatest Hits tour. Am quite excited how it's gonna be. Hope there won't be too much chaos in the area around the venue. I know the town pretty well, so I hope I'll find somewhere to park my car. I also hope Sasha's teenage fanbase is smaller than it used to be cos I haven't got time to wait outside the venue for hours to get in first and find a place at the front near the stage.

Blah. Just me thinking out loud. Sorry. Anyway, I'll let you know what I thought of the whole thing.

Link to Sasha's official website: http://www.sasha.de

100th post, yay!

Forgot something: as you all know, Wednesday was Valentine's Day. Couldn't have cared less. But my February Tupperware present was a very kitschy heart-shaped box with a rose on the top. Disgusting.

And I wanted to add a short English summary for the post below:
Have the week off. Bought a rucksack and a CD on Monday. Went shopping for furniture on Tuesday (Found a cupboard for my shoes (or whatever you call that - and no, I'm not a shoe-aholic at all) and a table for the living room. Delivery takes about 7 weeks. Also bought 2 chairs for the kitchen.) Went to have my hair cut on Wednesday. Didn't turn out well. Then went to a big supermarket. Back to my place (after 2 days at my mum's) an Thursday. Am now trying to tidy up (i.e. unpack a couple more boxes) and clean the flat. A skin problem I had some years ago seems to have returned. Thought it was stress-related, but why does it start in my week off?? It's nothing serious, though.

Mal wieder was auf Deutsch

Bin grad zu faul, um auf Englisch zu schreiben. Irgendwie ist mein Urlaub schnell rum gegangen. Mo war ich kurz in der Stadt, teilweise, um was fürs Büro zu besorgen bzw. abzuholen, teilweise, um für mich Zeug zu kaufen - z.B. so ein Abflussreiniger-Gel, weil die Spüle verstopft war. Hat sogar funktioniert, oh Wunder. Außerdem hab ich einen Rucksack für 4 Euro gekauft. Echt krass billig, ey. Mal sehen, wie lang er hält. Und ne CD von The Feeling, also ihr Album Twelve Stops and Home. Ich kannte von der Arbeit ihre Singles Sewn und Fill my little world, die ich beide total mochte. Hielt die Band allerdings für Schweizer. Sind aber Engländer. Dann hab ich am Wochenende zufällig die letzten 15 Minuten eines Live-Mitschnitts vom New Pop Festival 2006 gesehen und fand das super. Der Sänger ist süß. Meine nachfolgende Internet-Recherche ergab aber leider, dass er schwul ist. Naja, auch egal. Jedenfalls hab ich mir das Album gekauft. Hat mich nicht total umgehauen, ist aber insgesamt schon ganz gut. V.a. die zuvor genannten Singles schaffen es immer, mir gute Laune zu machen.

Di war ich dann mal wieder auf Möbelsuche, zusammen mit meiner Mutter. Das mit dem Schreibtisch ist komplizierter, als ich dachte. Es gibt nämlich entweder Schreibtische, die mir eigentlich zu groß sind (ab 1,20 Breite, oder Länge, oder was weiß ich), oder mini-kleine PC-Tische mit Tastaturauszug usw. Sowas mag ich eigentlich nicht bzw. dieser komische Auszug wäre Gewöhnungssache. Außerdem hat man da sehr wenig Beinfreiheit, weil unter der Platte ein Brett für den Drucker ist. Ist ja schon praktisch, aber sich dauernd das Schienbein zu stoßen, ist auch nicht so prickelnd. Mal sehen, was ich mach. Stühle für die Küche hab ich aber gefunden, weiß mit Metallbeinen und Griffloch in der Lehne. Dazu ein rotes und ein oranges Sitzkissen. Sind aber noch nicht bei mir, ist auch nicht sooo dringend. Außerdem hab ich einen Schuhschrank ausgesucht. In der Garderoben und Kommoden-Abteilung war's saukalt. Danach sind wir erst mal zurück ins Restaurant und haben nen warmen Kakao bestellt. Konnte mich ewig nicht entscheiden. Jetzt nehm ich halt so einen Kleiderhaken, den meine Schwester übrig hat,  und hab eben nur einen Schuhschrank. Der ist aber schön, mit glänzender bordeaux-roter Front und Seiten aus Buche. Leider passt jetzt mein alter weiß-grau-hellblauer Ikea-Teppich, der im Flur liegt, nicht mehr dazu. Sehr clever. Einen Couchtisch hab ich dann auch noch gefunden. Die waren mir auch alle zu 
groß und viele hatten ne Glasplatte, was ich blöd find. Hab aber dann, wie gesagt, noch 
einen gefunden, den es in verschiedenen Größen gab. Schuhschrank und Couchtisch sind allerdings erst ca. in 7 Wochen fertig zum Abholen. 
Super, der Zeilenumbruch spinnt wieder.

Mi war ich dann beim Frisör und hab mich verunstalten lassen. Im Ernst, es sieht furchtbar aus. Einfach nur stumpf abgeschnitten. Dabei bin ich mir ziemlich sicher, dass das Wort "stufig" in der Vorbesprechung gefallen ist, und die Friseuse kennt mich auch. Hab mich eh ziemlich schnell abgefertigt gefühlt. Sie hat meine Haare auch nicht besonders gestylt mit Schaumfestiger oder Haarspray oder so. Klar, zuhause föhn ich sie auch einfach nur wild trocken, aber das müssen die in dem Laden doch nicht auch machen. Okay, sie hat die Rundbürste benutzt, aber trotzdem. Alles sehr seltsam. Jedenfalls muss es mir jetzt nicht mehr leid tun, wenn ich mir hier in Nürnberg einen neuen Frisör suche. Pff, Deppen. Am Nachmittag war ich in dem größten Supermarkt, den ich kenne. Hab wie immer lauter Sachen gekauft, die nicht auf dem Zettel standen. Ti Amo Trüffel von Sarotti. Kosten nur 1,29 und sind super lecker. War dann noch ne weitere Nacht bei meiner Mutter (Papa und Schwester sind beim Skifahren) und bin dann Do vormittag wieder heim gefahren.

Meine Sachen von Tupperware hab ich inzwischen auch. Lauter lustige bunte Dosen. Und der Milchschäumer funktioniert super. Und macht Oberarm-Muckis, haha. Do hab ich dann also die Küche aufgeräumt, mehr oder weniger. Und heute hab ich den Flur gewischt. Sieht aber trotzdem noch dreckig aus.

Was noch? Hab IE7 installiert. Jetzt sehen alle Schriftarten komisch aus, aber nicht so verschwommen wie im Büro. Und ich hab trotz meines Mißtrauens gegenüber Microsoft die automatischen Updates wieder aktiviert. Tja, und jetzt lädt nebenbei irgendwas, keine Ahnung, bin erst bei 27%, was auch kein Wunder ist mit meiner lahmen 56k Verbindung. Außerdem hab ich wohl wieder Psoriasis, also Schuppenflechte. Hatte vergessen, wie die Krankheit heißt. Hab aber dann, als ich im Internet nach Hautkrankheiten gesucht hab, das Wort Psoriasis wieder erkannt, bin aber der Meinung, dass es auf Deutsch auch noch anders heißt. Oder ich spinn. Jedenfalls dachte ich, das ist stress-bedingt bei mir. Aber wieso fängt es dann wieder an in der Woche, in der ich zum ersten Mal seit über nem halben Jahr Urlaub hab?! Ist doch sehr unlogisch.

Wow, langer Beitrag. Was hab ich am Wochenende vor? Nix. Schlafen und lesen und fernsehen. Und ein bisschen putzen. Spektakulär. Und am Mo zurück ins Büro. Nein, es folgt jetzt kein "uahhhh". Ich mag meinen Job. Und meine Kollegen. Basta. Und gute Nacht.

Brief update

Hey there,

sorry for the lack of new posts. I had a pretty bad cough and an equally nasty cold this week. Tuesday was hell, but I feel much better now. And I've got next week off of work. Yay. I planned this before I got ill, but that doesn't matter really.

Can't think of anything else now, sorry.

What's new, Pussycat?

1) It's become very very cold and it started snowing Tuesday night. Yesterday I didn't go to work by car, not so much because of the situation on the streets, but in my yard where no-one had shoveled the snow away and I thought I wouldn't be able to move my car. Going by public transport was okay. Today there was still as much snow, but I was brave and even managed to turn the car around and drive out of the gate. Yay for me.

2) My sweet little sister wants to go on holiday with me in the spring or early summer - and guess where? Stockholm! I took Swedish at college but have never been to Sweden. I was very surprised when she suggested it cos she normally wants to go to some sunny beach and not to a Northern city. Flights aren't too expensive but I can't decide which travel guide to buy.

3) I'm going to a TupperParty tomorrow. Makes me feel very housewife-y, hehe.

Nice weekend everyone! Over and out. : )

My thoughts on The Prestige

As I mentioned before, I saw CB’s latest film The Prestige last weekend and enjoyed it a lot. Strangely enough, Christian (who’s been in a lot of period films, such as Portrait of a Lady, Little Women, Newsies, Swing Kids, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) to me in some scenes looked like a modern day person walking around in 19th century London. I blame that on the hair. It was quite short and spiky which looked, as I said, modern to me, which was slightly distracting.

The other slight problem I had – as mentioned in replying to continuitygirl’s comment on my entry before this one – was with the twist of the story, which was too obvious for me or, in other words, which I’d guessed pretty early on. I’m not usually like that and Christopher Nolan is IMO a very intelligent director, so I was a bit surprised I got it right. Ha, does it make you crazy now not to know what I’m talking about? As I don’t want to give it away, you’ll have to go see the film yourselves to find it out. Apart from this twist concerning Alfred (CB), there’s another one which has to do with Hugh Jackman’s character, but that’s not really a twist because you see when it’s first discovered. Um yeah, sorry if this doesn’t make much sense.

Another thing: the whole cast was very good, especially Michael Caine who is the narrator, sort of. Something that can be confusing is the way the story is told, i.e. the events are not shown in chronological order so you sometimes wonder what came when etc. But things do make sense in the end. So, on the whole, good film with slight imperfections but two very handsome and talented leading men.

Oh, and there were lots of trailers shown beforehand. Most of the films looked quite interesting, such as Breaking and Entering with Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn. Don’t think I’ll go see it because Jude Law has an awful hair cut and looks really old and Juliette Binoche has a very strange accent (at least in German. Didn’t sound like the French accent you’d expect of her.).

Happy (belated) new year!

Oh how very creative I am with my post titles ….

Anyway, I’ve moved into my own place at last and I love it. The heating wasn’t working properly in the bedroom, though, and I caught a cold, but someone came this morning and fixed it (the heating, not my cold unfortunately). There’s still a lot to unpack, but the TV and VCR are working, which is very important. Haven’t unpacked the computer yet cos I might have to get a new desk cos the old one is probably too big if I put it in the living room. You see, the sofa’s bigger than I thought. There’s room in the bedroom, but I don’t really want to put the desk there. Hm. We’ll see. The only problem at the moment is that the fabric I’ve picked out for the curtains in the living room isn’t available anymore so I have to go and pick out another one, which won’t be easy cos I loved the one I had chosen.

Christmas and New Year’s Eve was good. Nothing spectacular, but okay.

And I went to the movies! I saw The Holiday (German title is Liebe braucht keine Ferien, which means Love doesn't need holidays. Doesn't make much sense, does it?) with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and the so very handsome Jude Law. Loved the film. I thought there wouldn’t be much of a story except for 2 women who’d just dumped their boyfriends swapping homes, but there actually was, which was a very nice surprise. The whole cast was very good. And the cottage in England looked like straight out of a Thomas Kinkade painting.

And Christian Bale's new film The Prestige opens here tomorrow. Am very excited about it. Will try to go see it on Friday or something.

Oh great and now one paragraph looks different than the others. Never try to understand computers, I tell ya ...