Yay.

This has just made my day!!!

Provided it means what I think it means ... you will see me jump for joy like you never have before!

(I've spent some time pondering on whether to send it to Luischen via email.
And I've just decided I will! ^^
So: sorry Luischen if you hate me for sending an email to you again, but I just have to on this occasion.)

I feel like ...

... the biggest

IDIOT ON THE PLANET

now.

There you go, life.

I felt like ...

... a bajillion friggin'

NINJAS

two and a half hours ago ...

... but forgot to post it here.
Bugger.

Other news.

• One of the "Something to mull over"-issues has been taken care of:

Breaking Dawn has officially been pre-ordered!!!

Of course, I'll add an update as to when I received it in the end.

• Painters are coming over in about 10 minutes to look at our house.

• Preparations for London have gone into the final round! (That is buying miniature shower gel and checking on the validity of my bank card.)
  

Countdown.

Remaining days until birthday: 7

Number of presents which are not money: 0

Amount of happiness created by this: *blowingraspberries*

Something to mull over.

Note to myself: if you put a remote control in between the pages of a loose leaf binder, the binder will not lie flat unless you remove the remote again. Hm ...

Here I am, wrecking my brain once again. Honestly, sometimes I wish I was stupid, so I could not think as much as I do.
What it is that gets me thinking? Well, essentially two things:

1. Do I want to get an iPod for my birthday (which, btw, is only 12 days away) or not? In fact, I do want one, but now I got a cheap mp3-player from my neighbour (which makes me lose my temper every two seconds, cos it doesn't work the way I want it to) and I still have my MiniDisc-player which I just love but it's got a crack in its casing and so maybe it's going to die very soon - these two make me feel bad about getting another technical device designed to play music.
2. Do I want to pre-order Breaking Dawn with amazon (they will ship it on August 4th, i.e. I'd have it August 5th or 6th) or do I want to try my luck at some bookseller's in Vienna? I have tried to get hold of a copy of Eclipse in Vienna two months ago (shortly before the release of the new edition) and after 3 hours of hopeless searching made my way home to order it online after all. Nevertheless, if they had it someplace - I would have it on the day of release and not one or two days later. However, if they don't have it, I would only be able to order it on the 4th and hence they'd ship it on the 5th and I would really have to wait until the 6th to finally hold it in my hands ... Is anyone still following???

Any suggestions?

Thoughts of a dying teacher.

Here are some thoughts I just included in my written task for one of my didactics classes at Uni. I don't know, but somehow those issues never leave me and I end up wrecking my head again and again about how to solve them or even what to think of them. Maybe someone would like to share their ideas on this one with me ^^ ...

We then came up with some activities which follow these rules of task-based design. I have tried some of these with my students and again, I found them successful with students of average or higher language levels. All of my slow-learning students, even those aged sixteen upwards, had a fairly difficult time coming up with ideas about the content of their writing even with those task-based instances of practice. I could not help but notice that some of these difficulties were due to the lack of practice the students experience in their school routine. To me, this is a big issue, as I can relate to the thoughts behind the teachers’ decision not to include extensive writing practice. In almost every case, working with lower-level students requires a great amount of patience as well as help and guidance. This guidance, however, is often needed at a level which cannot be provided in normal school teaching, as there the teacher does not have the chance to focus on each individual. Nevertheless, if the students do not receive the help they need, they are prone to be unsuccessful to a point that makes the practice irrelevant in itself and also in the long-run (as no mere further explanation could resolve their problems). Hence, it seems perfectly understandable to me that teachers in such schools omit the concept of essay writing from their teaching.

Personally, I am usually at a loss with those students for a very long time until - when I've almost given up - they start writing "like Gods" ^^ straight out of the blue.
Consequently, I haven't yet been able to identify any action or kind of support which aids their learning (maybe it is their own miraculous development that gets them started and none of my help at all - what the heck do I know?). Or is it the mere amount of practice?

P.S.: If you don't get the reference in the title, check here. (The video is kind of strange, but it's the best version of the song in album quality I could find.)

I do have something to say.

That is:

Why does no-one want to save some rainforest???

Maybe I should write a new post.

And maybe it should be an interesting one.

Only complication: I am by no means interesting. So why should my posts be??? Hmmm ...

I just wrote a big pile of shit and deleted it again - for lack of personal interest.
So ...
No new post today!

For educational purposes.

Konichiwa Bitches by Robyn

Poll.

Could everyone who visits my blog please vote for one of the two Breaking Dawn countdowns?!?!?!
Please just comment on this post and state which one's your favourite.

That would be soooooo nice!!!

P.S. concerning my own opinion:
I prefer the layout of the first one, but I just love the milliseconds-idea of the second one.
So ... it's up to you!

Recommendation of the day.

So much for Sex and the City's dreams of women having sex like men.

Quote of the day.

Bella Swan: Are you gonna tell me how you stopped the van?
Edward Cullen: Yeah ... uhm ... I had an adrenaline rush ... it's very common ... you can google it.

context

Recommendation of the day.

I know, it's been out for a while (5 years to be exact), but I think it's still far from being dated:

Absolution by Muse

(I also know it takes some balls to listen to it at first, but once you've made it past the edginess it definitely pays off.)

Did I mention ...

... the 100 hp????

No, I think I forgot :-D.

My new baby ...

... will be delivered some time between October and November.

Yeah!!!!!!

Oh - just in case you've been wondering - this is what it will (approximately) look like:


(Mine'll have different rims and the SkyDome roof, but the rest here's just fine!)

Quote of the day.

An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.

Agatha Christie

Information no one needs, but everyone wants to have.

Nazgûl vs. Labradoodle

How the battle ends ...

How I don't believe in lies.

Promising title, innit?
Well, to be quite honest, it's by far not as interesting as it seems.

What I really want to tell you is that I am not going to believe the lies the Austrian economy is going to spread about how much they earn in all of this Euro 2008 shit.
Thank God I've got my own sources which are slightly more reliable (but really only slightly). The mere rent for two sales booths on the infamous "Fanmeile" around the Ringstraße is 50 000€. Please note: this does not include electricity, staff or the products sold in the respective booths.
Total income of those two boths yesterday by the end of the game in Vienna: 150€.

Hmm ... why does that not quite add up in my pretty little equation???
But I'm sure, Austria will only - I repeat: only - profit from this wonderful diversion in our boring "small state"-routine. I am absolutely positive about this. 100%. The Euro is so good, I wonder how we've ever managed to live without it.

Nevertheless, I think I am going to send a letter to the government, reminding them of subtracting the money spent on the accomodation of all the hooligans in our beautiful - no, marvellous - prisons from the total of Euro 2008 profits. Yeah, definitely going to do so!
Anyone know the exact address?

I don't know.

I really don't know what to write - actually now I do:

My mum just told me that one of dad's colleagues / employees quit today.
That wouldn't be too bad, if dad's branch didn't only consist of him, two others (one other that is, now) and a secretary.
Even this wouldn't be quite so bad if they hadn't just signed a huge contract which would in fact require much larger manpower.
What's more, this guy was a friend of ours. A friend - we used to meet and have dinner together (both our families), we used to go on sightseeing tours in Vienna, we used to go to the theatre ... and that's our personal "Thank you for all of this, but now I'll have to kick you where it hurts most."-event, or what???

That useless old git pretended to be severely ill and have tons of doctor's appointments when in fact he was probably applying for other jobs. Because he didn't have enough free time for his family life. Does anyone ever even consider that no one working in this field can ever have spare time. Don't ask me, when my dad last took more than 3 days off in a row. And don't even think about asking me, when on these rare occassions his phone has ever been silent for more than 20 minutes!!!

That's fucking life, get used to it.
But don't, JUST FRIGGIN DON'T, betray your friends like this!!!
That makes you the biggest twat I have ever so much as heard of in my entire life - and that's for sure!

Heat, soreness, social life, etc.

It's too darn hot to even move. If I could stop breathing I would, honest to God. I'm Sticky Boy Ricki from head to toe and I hate it! And all the leg shaving stuff got me some decent flesh wounds on both my calves. (the body parts, not the baby-cows!)

Just 'cause I read some of my earlier posts here - the soreness is almost entirely gone, or at least it was until I started thinking about it again ;-).
Anyway, I'm feeling better than before, so that goes under "good" in my book.

In addition, this Saturday will go down in history as the first "second Saturday in a row" since last year that I have got plans vaguely corresponding to what others call "social life". *gggg*
Well, I do have a social life, I have had that before, but strangely enough this seems to be limited to week nights with me. So my basic situation is "Oh my God, how am I going to make all these appointments fit into one week?" and "Great, so how will I be killing time on the weekend?". Haha, none of that this week.

I'll be off to writing some very important PowerPoint slides now, which is also very useful and authentic writing practice as I learned today. Hopefully, it will improve my German (again).

By the way: you have to listen to "Grandma Shirley and Papa" and not to "Sticky Ricki". (of course you can listen to that as well, it just isn't what I had in mind when writing)

My English sucks.

So maybe I should go to Norway or even Denmark to improve it!

That's the take-home-message I got at University today.
From a Professor who spoke German to me (obviously because he could not muster a coherent English sentence - he had to shut his eyes firmly to even utter the German gibberish he spit at me - I'm not saying anything - no, I'm not) and was unaware of the fact that your "fellow students" are not your "colleagues".
Hah, do I have to say any more? I don't think so.

Oh, one other anecdote: Since my other subject is Catholic Religious Education, why don't I write a diploma thesis on the Puritans at his department??? Oh, I really don't have the foggiest why I don't ...

Which Black Books character are you most like?

Wanna try this?

Which The Lord Of The Rings character are you most like?

You are most like Frodo. You're very friendly, and you have a great personality. Although you like to have fun, you can also be pretty serious at times. It's pretty hard to get you mad, but once you're mad...everybody better look out! Keep that temper under control and realize that you're better off than you may think.

Wanna try?

Puke

If I wasn't too tired to even friggin move, I'd probably puke all over the place right now.
So much for today and for everyone around.

Plus: My word of the day would have to be "respect". Go figure!

Changes

Changed something today: I won't be writing on a notepad anymore, I have now got a binder which contains my empty sheets. Superb, ha???

I'm still sore all over, even if it's slowly getting better. Or not, I'm not sure.

My latest acquisition in the book department arrived today but now I'm stuck in the middle of one of the old ones, so I'm not going to start it straight away. Plus, it's a really thick volume with tiny, tiny printing - those are going to be tough 617 pages, I can tell you. Still, if it's only half as entertaining as the former ones, I'm going to have a blast reading it! At least that's what I'm hoping for.

Well, I'm off to some more boring family conversation now - hooray!

Other than that ...

... there's not much to tell.

Handed in my seminar paper today and got severely freaked out by how freaked out everyone else is. I am the one who has already failed a seminar, but obviously everyone else thinks they will have to die if they fail one. I can tell you:

• It's not that easy to die! That takes a lot more than one stupid seminar.
• There's no way anyone can or will ever know how to do it right, so don't even bother asking all sorts of annoying questions on how to do something. Just do it and see what happens. But please, for God's sake - cut the anxiety!!! I'm so sick of all the "Uahahs" and "Uhuhus".

So, I've, in general, been trying to avoid everyone else today - doesn't work - they're everywhere!
The only really good thing's the rain - if this continues all through Thursday morning, I won't have to go through this stupid photoshoot for my grandma's birthday. Which is a definite plus as far as the rain is concerned ;-).

Umph.

My entire body hurts. From head to toe. Inside out. And it doesn't stop.

What's worse: My mind/soul/psyche hurts as well. From head to toe. Inside out. And it doesn't stop. It doesn't even have a reason. It just hurts in a strange existential way I can't really be bothered with. So I figured I should just let it hurt and not mind it any more.

So that's what I'm doing right now: Not minding the hurt.
Just in case anyone's been wondering.

Postscript still

No worries to all those (haha again) who could not make any sense of the last two posts - they are actually not supposed to make sense!

It's a little difficult to explain:
a. they are some sort of insider-stories
b. they are actually not yet intended for anyone's ears (yeah - don't ask why I posted them then - what the heck do I know???) - I first need to prove their reliability and then maybe someday, when I've figured out my stand between either-or I can provide some further detail!

Also, no worries about the psychological torture-stuff this does to me. That's life and I'll live!
If not, I'll let you know before I am actually dead, so you can get some VIP-getting-used-to-it-time.
Promise!

Postscript for Luischen

No, this is not about the guy we talked about last time!!! It's far worse.
Let me say this much to get rid of the confusion: It is not about Mr. Friday, it's about "Thursday-Guy" - got it??

[You don't know anything about Thursday-Guy, I didn't know either back when we talked on Tuesday. - As I said: bad!]

I am sooo stupid!

I honestly am the most stupid person I have ever seen. (Though I'm still trying to convince myself I have been forced into this whole scenario by someone else - yes, Luischen, it is quite probable I'm talking about you right now!!!)

Now I'm sure everyone (haha) wants to know what the situation is and why I consider myself the most stupid person ever:
I spent the whole morning nervous to death because I was sitting in one room with the guy I'm currently positive (or afraid) I have a crush on.
GOD - this is abnormal. I am a grown-up person, I should be able to get a grip on myself, shouldn't I? It's soooo bad, soooo bad - I am going to have to get drunk every Thursday morning from now on. That's my only chance of survival.

Crap, I am never going to talk to anyone about those things anymore - it only makes them worse in a completely wrong direction - argh!
I'm already self-conscious enough, I don't need to ponder for three hours whether the way I behaved was in any way strange or goofy! Can't I just drop dead????
PLEASE?!?!?!

Dang it!!!

It would be so great if people could just shut their effing mouths real tight!
That would not only make my day or week - no, that would make my entire LIFE.

Honestly: I don't need your effing attitudes - I'm not giving you attitudes either, am I?!?!?! No, I'm not. So shove yours up your arses, 'cause I don't care about any of them. For Chrissake!!!

Oh, and by the way: I am so much better than you anyway, so don't even attempt to try to pretend. I can see right through you without even looking. It only makes you look pathetic and we really don't want you to look pathetic, do we?

Right, so cut it!

Tataaaa ...

Airtime credit has been topped up, BBQ has not been used so far, even if we did have BBQ for lunch. We used the old one for this, because the new one still stinks and has to be "ausbrend", if you understand what I mean. Well, a fire has to be lit inside it so the smell goes away.

Anyway. Ditched Luischen yesterday when asked to go to a club with her (them) to celebrate her birthday. I'm just not one of those club people, I am really sorry about that. I hate to dress up just to have to dress down again after 3 hours or so. I hate being funny and hyper-friends with everyone just so I don't have to stand around in a corner until daybreak. I hate 99% of the music they air in those types of super-cool clubs.

I guess I am far too critical to be able to go out like everyone else does:
I am too critical when it comes to myself and my own appearance - I despise how I look in most of my clothes (even those I think look great on me actually only make me not want to instantly puke at the mere sight of my reflection in the mirror). I am too critical when it comes to the people I am with - I can sense immediately whether someone is honest or not and whether they are only acting up as hyper-friends so they don't have to stand around in a corner until daybreak or not. I am too critical when it comes to music - there are many kinds of music I enjoy listening to, but those are all smart kinds and I prefer listening to them in smart environments.

Clubs seem too fake a surrounding for me to be in. I am not comfortable being fake. I have never been. I prefer being honest, even if this gets me much fewer friends than most other people have. I am aware of the fact that I am a weirdo. But I'm also proud of it.

Oh yeah, and I h-a-t-e being saved by people - being helped to be normal or whatever.
Fuck that, if you guys are being normal, I'd rather be the most abnormal person on the entire planet (not that I really was)!!!

Why?

Why did I have such a clearly defined clue about what I wanted to write here yesterday and now everything is gone again? Disappeared, despite its seeming so urgent.

Probably because of the new BBQ we bought today. I've just spent an hour trying to assemble it. That sounds like I didn't succeed, but I did. Only, it was hard work. And it cleared my brain from unnecessary thoughts.

Anyway, package's still not here - hm. My fingers smell of steal and grease. I hate everyone and everything (though especially the everyone's around me - haha). And my airtime credit is up, consequently I have to top up. Yuk.

So much for my day.

P.S.

No Packi so far! Crap.

Well, well.

Seems all prophecies come true in the end.

Only I'm too stupid to get that beforehand.

Well.

Packi-Wahn!!!

Morgen soll mein Packi aus dem UK kommen.
Und wenn nicht, dann lauf ich Amok.
Aber echt he!

Die Abgründe der menschlichen Seele ...

... schockieren mich in den letzten Tagen immer wieder.

Da diese Erlebnisse sich häufen (warum wohl???), bin ich zu dem Entschluss gekommen, dass ich hier den Knall haben muss (zusammen mit Luischen und Alomo, die Frau H. trau ich mich auch gleich dazunehmen - ohne mit ihr darüber gesprochen zu haben).

Soviel dazu.

True Aussie girl!

You Belong in Australia

Ace! Sunny, upbeat, and cute You make the perfect surf bum Now stop hogging the vegemite!

What English Speaking Country Are You?

Stöckchen-Zeugs Pt. 2

Was war das Beste an 2007?

mein Tattoo, das "Die Ärzte"-Konzert

Welches Lied passt zu deiner momentanen Stimmung?

"Anna Molly" - Incubus

Einen Film, den jeder mal gesehen haben sollte:

Herrje ... "Frühstück bei Tiffany" "To Wong Fu" "Boys Don't Cry" "Brokeback Mountain" "Walk the Line" "Die fabelhafte Welt der Amelie" "Everything is illuminated" ... soll ich noch weitermachen?

Wo befindet sich gerade der am weitesten entfernte Freund?

Deutschland

Welche Sportart würdest du gerne perfekt beherrschen?

Westernreiten

Welcher Musiker/Band ist total überbewertet?

die uns allen hinreichend bekannte "Hackfresse" Fergie
"Ich bin ein schwuler Frauenversteher" Mika
James "Kotzwürg" Blunt
und ich fürchte auch Timbaland (sorry - ich find seine Lieder ja auch ganz okay)

Wem hast du die letzte E-Mail geschrieben?

Frau H.

Was hast du in diesem Jahr gelernt?

Charakter ist wichtig aber selten

Worauf könntest du am wenigsten verzichten: Handy, Internet oder Fernseher

Fernseher

In welchen Punkten entsprichst du deinem geschlechtspezifischen Rollenklischee?

Lass mich nachdenken ... ich denke noch ...
naja, ich hab eine ausgeprägte Schwäche für gutaussehende Männer *gleich an einen denken muss* - die Betonung liegt hier auf Männer nicht Spargeltarzan-Luschi-Idioten
... puh, das war's dann auch schon fürcht ich

3 Dinge, die du in den nächsten 3 Jahren erreicht haben willst:

Job, Wohnung, weniger Arschlöcher in meinem Leben

Zu wem aus dem engsten Familienkreis (Eltern, Geschwister) hast du die beste Beziehung?

Eltern (beide)

Aus welchem Land kam die letzte Postkarte an dich?

ABC-Antillen ???

Stöckchen-Zeugs

Vorherrschendes Gefühl für 2008?
Skepsis (ist das ein Gefühl?)

2007 zum ersten Mal getan?
gepokert

2007 nach langer Zeit wieder getan?
die Frau Muhaha getroffen

2007 leider gar nicht getan?
geknutscht

Wort des Jahres?
Oaschsau

Zugenommen oder abgenommen?
zuerst ab jetzt wieder ein bissl zu (Weihnachtszeit, Weihnachtszeit)

Stadt des Jahres?
Hayingen (hihi - man kann's kaum glauben, oder?)

Vorschau

Haare länger oder kürzer?
zuerst kürzer, jetzt wieder länger

Verliebt?
das zählt alles eh nicht!

Getränk des Jahres?
Whisk(e)y

Essen des Jahres?
Garnelen mit getrockneten Tomaten auf Spaghetti

Most called persons?
Eltern, Frau H., Luischen

Die schönste Zeit verbracht mit?
Frau Muhaha (DÄ-Konzert!)

Song des Jahres?
"Set the fire to the third bar" - Snow Patrol feat. Martha Wainwright

CD des Jahres?
"Jazz ist anders" - Die Ärzte

Buch des Jahres?
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" - J.K. Rowling

Film des Jahres?
"The Bourne Ultimatum"

Konzert des Jahres?
Die Ärzte

TV-Serie des Jahres?
McLeods Daughters

Drei Dinge auf die ich gut hätte verzichten können?
Na, ich glaub da fallen uns mindestens drei Namen ein ...

Nachbar des Jahres?
Steffi

Beste Idee/Entscheidung des Jahres?
Blogumzug

2007 war mit einem Wort?
Naja.