Montag, 2. Juli 2007

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.

Montag, 18. Juni 2007

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.

Mittwoch, 6. Juni 2007

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.

Donnerstag, 24. Mai 2007

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!

Montag, 7. Mai 2007

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.
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