I don’t have a specific theme I stick to because that’s simply impossible for me. Basically anything that sparks my interest enough is worth blogging about. But to bring some light into the dark, I could say that there are some reoccurring broad topics which I discuss like for instance travel, culture, arts, literature, lifestyle and food.
A very short definition of myself: a dreamy, chaotic, creative, sarcastic megalomaniac who is incredibly in love with art, pandas and mango.
Another novel that has been read all over the world has recently fallen into my hands. Fifty Shades of Grey is the story of the innocent, average literature studies student graduate Anastasia Steel and rich sadist Christian Grey. The first really remarkable trait which popped into my eye, was the writing style which had a strong resemblance to Twilight. And that’s how the whole fiasco started. I wasn’t particularly thrilled to find similarities between those two books. It seems like E.L. James was heavily inspired by Stephenie Meyer or to put it bluntly: she copied her.
The basic idea is more or less the same crap in blue, green or whatever color you wish. It’s about this incredible handsome rich bachelor who acts all mysterious and has this enigmatic aura and therefore seems to be pretty unreachable, BUT one day he does fall for some random average girl. Turns out that this time the guy isn’t a vampire. No, he’s just some perverted sadist who really likes to hurt women because of his twisted orphan background. Well, apart from that, the love story is flawless, I’d say. Naturally, Grey tries his best to overcome this obstacle with his beloved one, but apparently it takes them three novels to solve the issue. I’m still a bit unsure whether I should buy the rest of the trilogy as I’m assuming that it will turn out to be this typical cliché happy end.
Come to think of it, I truly expected a lot more from a bestseller! Honestly, it really lacks substance and depth. Some woman comes up with the idea of writing a vividly described love story (slash soft porn) and the public is all of a tizzy. I guess the majority of readers were just curious about the whole sadomasochism concept, but really — it’s not that special.
To sum up, I would characterize “Fifty Shades of Grey” as another piece of trash pop literature which people like to read when they dawdle away at the airport, while waiting for their flight to board or in a doctor’s waiting room.
Watching the red state vs. blue state videos by Dr.Seuss, was not only good for a laugh, but also for educational purposes. Instead of facts and figures, which usually would have been a bit dull and dry, the producers created a nice cartoon story for children. Dr. Seuss’ work was easy to follow, clearly structured and humorous. Even though both videos were exaggerated to the point of ludicrousness, these biased views actually added a fun factor to the explanation.However, young children may not understand the humor as there is the possibility that they take all the statements seriously. The Republicans are described asdevout rednecks that are against foreigners and change, whereas the Democrats are depicted as artistic, homosexual hippies who do not love their nation enough. These statements clearly allude to the existing stereotypes and clichés for each party. Apart from hearing a lot of insults, I also learned some new things while watching the videos. For example, I did not know that Fox News was a supporter of the Republicans, while HBO preferred the Democrats. Naturally, as I see myself as liberal and forward-thinking, I favor the Democrats and their ideals. On the whole, the videos helped me to get the gist of both parties and a deeper understanding of American politics.
About two weeks ago, a 15-year old Canadian girl named Amanda Todd committed suicide. If you haven’t heard of the case yet, here is the self-explanatory video she made shortly before taking her life.
Now, the question you might want an answer to is: How can someone be so cruel? Honestly, I don’t even have the slightest clue. To me, it’s incomprehensible how people can treat each other in such an inhuman manner, especially at such a young age. Where did they leave their morals? Did they throw them into the trash bin before kicking Amanda like a potato sack, calling her names that would make your ears ring in alarm and actually telling her to DIE? What the f? Not to mention the perverted internet stalker who tried to blackmail her by spreading the pictures of her exposed cleavage. Of course it was wrong of her to send him the picture in the first place, but can you really blame a 13-year old who has no idea of what creepy folks lure around in the World Wide Web? She was just too naïve and flattered by his compliments.
The third main issue that makes me shake my head is the story between this “old guy friend” and her. She was head over heels in love with him as he was one of the few people who still treated her normally. He on the other hand, obviously knew that she had a massive crush on him and took advantage of that by using her physically. Afterwards, he confessed the side leap and blamed it on Amanda or at least his girlfriend did. Seriously girl, stop lying to yourself. If he cheated on you, it’s not because Amanda raped him – he must’ve wanted it too. Just get over it.
A problem that really alarms me is the massive lack of civil courage. Even when that guy’s girlfriend punching her in front of the school, no one stepped in except for a teacher after he saw a whole clique hitting her. Were there no consequences? Wouldn’t they normally get expelled for such an act of violence? Later, people told her that she had deserved it. Wouldn’t you be ashamed of yourself? It truly disgusts me to know what kind of scum lives on this earth. Stories like this are one of the major reasons why I am afraid to get children. Imagine the same would happen to your child. Tell me, how would you deal with that? Even if it sounds stupid, I’d definitely try to take vengeance, even if it means being possessed by finding this pervert who started the whole dilemma.
When I hear about bullying, no matter in what form, I always find it repelling as it would be so easy to stop the bully instead of joining him and destroying someone’s life. Sadly, people easily give in into peer pressure as they’d rather be cowards than stand up for someone else who has probably never done them any harm and might’ve even been their friend. Schools and parents should work together more effectively: educating children, informing the public and raising awareness on bullying are only the first baby steps to prevent such tragic fates. The case of Amanda Todd is only one of far too many –I just hope that she didn’t die for nothing.
I’m pretty sure that if you own a Facebook account, you’ve spent far too much time on it more than just once. Admit it, you know how many hours you’ve wasted on it! Looking through photo-shopped pictures of artificially posing people, stalking good-looking acquaintances you barely know, reading oh-so-important status updates and playing games which were designed to attract five-year-olds.
Now, you might argue with me and tell me that you don’t do any of the things I mentioned (or not only). You defend yourself by illustrating what practical means of communication the social platform offers. You don’t need somebody’s phone number, e-mail address and sometimes not even their full name! People are easily found, can be added as “friends” and after having inspected their profile carefully, you’re persuaded that you’ve already known them for ages.
Yet, there already existed other ways to contact one another before Zuckerberg invented Facebook too. How about talking to someone face-to-face? You could send your friend a text message, an e-mail, even a letter or simply give them a call. Really, it’s actually not that hard. So please don’t tell me that you need Facebook to stay in contact with someone, it’s often more about spying into secrets, getting the latest gossip etc and most importantly: WASTING YOUR TIME. Even the most mundane, ridiculous or boring status one of your online friends might post, can still be far more entertaining than mulling over an essay. But if you aren’t eager on running away from your responsibilities anymore, I have a proposal for you:
Just quit it! If you don’t log in, you can’t walk into this horrible trap. At the moment I’m just extremely fed up with sacrificing so many enjoyable things I’d like to do because I can’t stop procrastinating. That’s why I am breaking up with Facebook. Yes, I’m going cold turkey on Facebook and I am telling you to make sure that I won’t have a relapse. This time, I really don’t want to give in, no matter what. Whenever I have an overpowering craving to log in, I’ll try to keep my fingers of the keyboard and run away from the PC as fast as possible. Mind you, I’m not going to delete my account with a finger snap, but I’ll deactivate it for the trial period of a month, starting this Monday.
Guys, if you want to meet up, need to contact me etc. just send me a message or e-mail me. Otherwise, most of you see me creeping around the university anyway. If all goes well, I’ll extend the withdrawal until Christmas and maybe some glorious day, I’ll actually delete it and be free...sigh. Where there’s a will, there’s a way (at least I hope so). Keep your fingers crossed.
The smart-ass guys from the college humor channel on YouTube recently produced a parody version of the popular “Gangnam Style” video by Korean singer PSY. PSY’s video has gone viral with more than 200 million views. This spin-off isn’t as popular yet, but already hit the million bar. I thought it was pretty funny and also good for educational purposes, so I wanted to share it with you guys. Enjoy!
Here are the lyrics:
Mitt Romney style! Romney style!
I got a horse in the Olympics girl But I don’t even watch ‘em In and out of tax loopholes ‘Cause I’m so fuckin’ awesome Bitch it’s Friday night so we be benefit hoppin’ Check my con-spic-u-ous consumption
I’ve got distinguished hair And a private jet that flies me way up in the air Buy and sell ya company with so much savoir faire I bough a mansion for each one of my two dozen heirs Straight up millionaire
Affluence Extravagance That’s Mitt (Hey!) That’s so Mitt (Hey!) Profits, investments! That’s Mitt! (Hey!) Yeah, that’s so Mitt! (Hey!) You should elect me Cause I go so much mon-ay AY AY AY AY AY!
I’m the VP nominee Yo budget I be cuttin’ I got the eyes and body So you know I’m gon’ be struttin’ I’ll cut ya social safety net You losers ain’t got nuthin’ Gotta stop snoozin’ Start hustlin’
(Back to Mitt Romney)
I got large amounts In Swiss bank accounts Norris and Eastwood in my vacation house Talkin’ wine and cheese Mad Ivy degrees Baby baby I got butlers just to wipe me You know what I’m sayin’!
As reported, I was a little bit too motivated at the beginning of the semester. I tried to squeeze all possible kinds of courses into my curriculum and ended up choosing two from the university’s sport department, namely “sport shooting” and “body styling”. A weird mixture, huh?
I have to make a confession here: I really like rough sports like hockey or boxing, but the times for those courses didn’t fit at all. But then, “sport shooting” suddenly leaped into my eye. Excitedly, I signed up for it with a good friend who was just as stoked as I was. We kept it our little secret as we thought that it sounded a little psychopathic.
The first time, we already started shooting from a 10 meter distance, but we could sit down and put our elbows onto the table to support the weight of the gun. It was far heavier than I’d expected it to be, though it was an air rifle for sport purposes and not a real one to hunt animals (or people…) down. The bullet on the other hand, was the tiniest I’ve ever seen in my life! The instructor explained everything right down to the last detail, making sure that we would always use the guns with caution and not kill anyone. Later, we got a box with bullets, a stack of target sheets and of course our own firing range. Not only was it very entertaining, but also extremely calming. When you aim at the target, you really have to focus all of your attention on to this tiny, black dot in the middle. Slowly, I realized that my imagination of wearing huge earplugs and wildly shooting at a human shaped target, had run a little wild. In spite of that, it was a great exercise to free your mind and until now the lessons were great!
Spoiled as I had been by the first successful course, I had high expectations for the second one. In my megalomania, I was convinced that, no matter what, I would stick to the planned schedule. With the enthusiasm of a naïve child, I walked into my first class of “body styling”. I thought that I was well-prepared and would know how to cope with the worst — what a delusion.
The gym instructor used to be a personal trainer and boy, she was one tough lady! The woman had a body out of steal and an iron will. Most of the other students I saw couldn’t follow her lead and collapsed after the thirtieth sit-up. Her dry response was,’ If you think you can’t go on, you still can repeat the exercise another 8 times!’ Wow, what a hard-edged personality! After some of the most exhausting ninety minutes of my life, my body was screaming with pain. I started feeling muscles aching which I didn’t even know existed. I had no idea how excruciatingly painful it would be to get in shape. Whenever I laughed or coughed, my stomach hurt — yes, it was THAT bad. Still, I hope to keep this promise to myself and will continue to walk in the chamber of horrors every Friday (if I survive). Wish me luck!
When the university started, so did its sport programme. To my own surprise I decided to sign up for some of these courses in the inexplicable hope of actually going there on a regular basis. I really have no idea under what kind of drug influence I actually was at that time. Can I really spare three hours every week (not to forget adding the time to get there)?
OF COURSE I CAN, because I am a freaking lunatic! At the start of a new school/ university year I always think that I can stuff my 24h day until it magically extends to twice the amount of hours. Although it's only week two, I'm already trying to feel a little tense.The problem is that I still don’t know how to organize myself properly and normally everything ends in pure chaos at some point. Usually, I just start sacrificing sleeping hours when I get the feeling that I really need a day with more hours. Dark circles under my eyes are never very prominent (Asians tend to have fabulous botox skin) and why do you think coffee was invented in the first place?
When I gave more thought to the whole issue, a scary question popped up in my head: Is this sudden urge for exercising connected to some subconscious wish to look like Heidi Klum? Hell no! Honestly, I find her extremely ugly and would need a lot of cosmetic surgery, but anyways let’s get back to the topic: no, I don’t want to look like a stick, but wouldn’t mind being a bit fitter as this would have plenty of advantages. For example, when the bus drives away before I manage to get in, it’s still possible for me to catch it if I run two stations further as it turns into a side street, while I can race straight down the street to gaspingly jump into it with a wildly thumping heart.
Another very realistic everyday life scenario would be carrying a crammed backpack around with you 24/7. You need heavy textbooks, folders and writing pads for university (at least I do). So why not prevent possible back pain by training your muscles?
PS.: An elaborate account of my experiences the next time. Stay tuned people!
Yes, I know that it’s not September anymore, but this post was impossible to finish earlier. It turned out a lot longer and more random than I’d expected. Already curious to see your reactions!
Achievements
As I’ve mentioned in a former post, I joined a platform called “bloggers.com”. Apart from getting to know other people and having a sneak peek at their blogs, it’s an abundant source of inspiration for everyone because you receive feedback, reviews or comments from other members and vice versa. Each day, the editors of the website pick three blogs which they think are worthy putting on the front page for this day. Luckily, I was chosen by them a few weeks ago. You cannot believe how thrilled I was!
TV Series
As most of you probably know, there was a horrible long break for all TV series. That’s why I looked for a new one and stumbled over a hilarious show called “Episodes”. Basically, it’s about a British couple who wrote a successful TV series in the UK and gets an offer to create an American version of it. However, the whole project turns out to be a nightmare as the two cultures clash. Lots of clichés, witty comments and swearing — a must-see!
Another TV show I am truly addicted to is “Masterchef (US version)” which is described best as a reality cooking contest. I just love seeing these people full with fiery passion. They have found their purpose in life and are willing to sacrifice everything for it. Needless to say that these shows are dramatized, but they still illustrate perfectly how important it is to have a goal worth fighting for. This year, the winner of the contest was a blind Asian woman which was probably a victorious day for all kinds of minorities.
Music
Normally, I listen to lots of different artists, but there were two in particular whom I enjoyed in September. After seeing “The xx” and “Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds” live for the first time at this year’s Frequency festival, I kept pushing the repeat button like a retard when I heard their songs on my iPod.
YouTube
JustForLaughsTV is my favorite YouTube channel of the month! They show hidden camera pranks which really crack you up. You can’t help admiring the creative ideas and of course the impeccable execution of the talented actors. It would be impossible for me to stay serious for so long! Check it out when you’re having a miserable day.
Drinks
Recently, there were some really funky and colorful bottles in the supermarkets which caught my attention. Arizona Iced Tea is a new brand which has spread quickly and is now available in almost all local supermarket chains. It’s a tad more expensive than other popular ice tea brands, but it does taste a hell of a lot better too, so I can live with that. They are produced in various flavors; personally I like pomegranate and blueberry the best. Give it a try!
Food
Not only do I love to cook, but also to eat (a lot). My absolute favorite dish of this month was lemon honey chicken. Who doesn’t love some crispy chicken skin? The acidic lemon adds a nice twist to the traditional recipe. For those of you with sensitive taste buds, don’t worry! The tartness is not overpowering as it is being neutralized with a few tablespoons of sweet honey. If you like to experiment a little, you can also add a few apple slices. It tastes heavenly!!! You will never want to eat your chicken a different way again, trust me.
An alternative dish for vegetarians (or great dessert) would be those awesomely decadent oreo chocolate cupcakes. A moist, rich chocolate muffin topped with a mountain of fluffy butter cream frosting and a scrumptious oreo cookie on its peak — is there a nicer way to give yourself a little treat?
Toiletries
In my eyes, the most succulent fruit in the world is mango. Maybe because I’m round and yellow? Jokes aside, but that’s why it shouldn’t surprise you that I got a mango shower gel from the Body Shop. Normally, the prices are too high for my taste, but luckily my greedy eyes saw the big, fat sales posters when I passed by. I’ve already used it before because some friends gave it to me. Yet, this was ages ago and I cannot believe that I forgot this pleasant smell. It’s SO good. At the moment I never want to use any other shower gel again. ever.
Accessories
It seems like September was the month of the great panda madness! I came back from Hong Kong with a panda-shaped bag , a panda organizer and a panda case for my phone. No idea when this obsession started, but I couldn’t resist getting those things as you’d never find anything like that in Austria (especially for such a price!). I guess that’s a proof of how Asian I am.
