things i love monday

haven’t done this in a while. but i guess loving things on monday makes more sense than loving things on thursday anyway. but then again tilt sounds much better than tilm.

real vacations

what i mean by that is vacations from actual working as opposed to studying. this doesn’t mean that studying is not hard, it just doesn’t have as strict a schedule as working so you don’t notice the difference so much. at least that’s how i felt: as if this vacation to portugal was the first one ever that actually deserved that name. anyway, this vacation was in july and i meant to write a whole tilt about it but since it’s been three months already i will give you the short version of things i loved about portugal: grilled fish, being driven around in a car + talking + listening to music, winning at slots and black jack at a casino (as opposed to losing at slots and not getting a place at the black jack table and then leaving disgrunteldly) (we had both), excessive grocery shopping which is then transported home comfortably in a car, reading at the beach (!!!) (i can’t stress this enough!) and being rid of the compulsion to get a tan which means no more sunburns, no more sweating thanks to a parasol, no more being blinded when trying to read, no more snide remarks about „tu n’as pas du tout bronzé“. oh and i also love portugal, especially its old parts where things are starting to fall apart. the new malls and stuff i could do without.

the best part about this though is that my next vacation is just around the corner: i’ll be spending next week at sylt.

making recommendations

i know pretty much everybody loves giving advice or voicing their opinion and almost no one really likes to listen to these things. i guess i am like most people in this respect which means that is just makes my day when i get the chance to make a recommendation, be it about which make-up to buy, about which new music to check out, about which book to take on a vacation, about which movie to look forward to, about where to look for a new winter coat, about which recipe to use for making lasagna, about what to do when visiting a city i know… i don’t even know why i like it so much. i like to think that it’s because i enjoy passing positive experience and helpful bits of knowledge on to other people but probably it’s just about feeling important. a real highlight in this respect was when a friend recently asked me if i could do her make-up for her party. oh the honour!  i suppose it was also a part of the reason why i originally started this poor negelected blog.

noticing an improvement

isn’t it just the best feeling in the world when one day you realize that you have gotten better at doing something? often it’s hard to tell because these changes can be so slight, but then at some point it becomes noticeable. like for example when you manage to run faster after a while, or when you notice that not as much of your work gets corrected. i have had a couple of those recently and it just makes me happy to see that with hard work i can get better at things. what could be more motivating?

adding new blogs to my reader

it doesn’t happen often that i find a new blog which i love so much that i never want to miss anything that is written on it again. but that makes it so much more special when this happens. it always feels like adding a new person to my life and thus gaining access to a whole new world of thoughts and inspirations. so anyone who can recommend a great new blog to follow will really make me really happy. my most recent addition has been this magical and mysterious blog: deerlings & ghostthings
i have to say blogs like these make me feel so mediocre. i seem to have lost all my blogging-mojo – wonder how long i will keep keeping this up. after all what is the point of blogging once a month? then again what is the point of abandoning something that never really was anything yet. that would be like giving up. we’ll see.

mad men

great new show i just started watching. it’s about advertising in new york in the 60s. the outfits are great, the story is kinda dark and mysterious, i like the characters, and i like how ads back then were so different from how they are now but how almost the same thoughts and considerations went into them. it’s almost educational if you will. also i am torn between thinking that it must have been great to live in a time where you could drink and smoke as much as you wanted whenever you wanted to, where wearing dresses and false eyelashed everyday was nothing unusual and being appaled and disgusted by the way women were treated back then. i get now why my mother always says that so much has changed for women in so little time – she saw it all happen.

cougar

and i don’t mean the horrible-looking new show with courteney cox but the band. i found them because they will be opening for maximo park on some of the european tour dates. i like their instrumental indie music, reminds me a little of ratatat. but hear for yourself (beware, strange video)

what do you love at the moment?

how to love your job

the first rule to this would obviously be to chose a job that is at least remotely interesting to you. but sadly even then the occasional frustration can’t be avoided. here are a few suggestions for counteracting that and getting real satisfaction from the occupation you spend a major part of your time on. and even though i don’t always manage to drive to work with a big smile on my face, these tips make it easier to make the best of it.

1. tolerate your colleagues, they have to tolerate you too. just try to remember that nobody’s perfect, not even you. that makes enduring all the little annoying habits of the people around you more manageable.

2. get to know your colleagues. first of all you’re going to spend a significant amount of time with them, and that is a lot more agreeable when „good morning“ and „see you tomorrow“ is not all you say to each other all day. having a social life with lots of human interaction is important and it’s good to incorporate that into your job. also the better you know someone the more likely it is that you will find something loveable about them. and last but not least it will also have a positive effect on working together with them.

3. be good at what you do and keep getting better. never stop learning and changing, don’t get too comfortable. it is tempting to think that after a couple of months you have seen it all, but if you make the effort there is always something to get better at, always an interesting question to ask. and how could a challenging job ever be a boring job?

4. be prepared to work more and stay longer than you absolutely have to. get noticed. but don’t forget that a good horse jumps only as high as it has to. which means that staying until midnight and finishing a task that no one will look at until the following week and that is the only thing you have to do until then is obviously not what i mean. but sometimes putting in a little extra effort or anticipating something that is going to come up and preparing for it without being asked to is never a bad idea. it will get you appreciated and being appreciated makes working more fun.

5. also don’t just see your job as a way to make money, a prerequisite for surviving. you spend too much time on it for that. instead be aware of the advantages your job offers you. be thankful for it, never take it for granted. try to find something meaningful in what you do. if you can’t, skip to point 10.

6. don’t see mistakes as failures but as opportunities to learn. be active about getting feedback instead of avoiding it. embrace even negative critiques – after all they are the ones that can really help you get better at what you do. also never be mad at someone for criticizing your work. it’s a lot easier to just say: „you did that really well“ and then correct it secretly than to make the effort to point out mitakes and suggest improvements. if someone takes that time be grateful. and don’t try to explain why you did something the way you did it. i am pretty sure that no one cares to hear the reasons for something that is not right and i also don’t think that anyone doubts that some consideration has gone into the work you’ve done – it’s just not satisfying which is why it has to be corrected.

7. don’t worry about potential problems until they become a reality. this is something i really have to work on. once i have handed in something i wrote i tend to worry that it won’t be good enough. or when i am asked into a personal meeting i get all nervous that it might be about a mistake i made. this keeps my mind off the task at hand and keeps me from doing the best job i can. also it’s bad for my nerves and for my mood. and in the end most of the times things aren’t as bad as i imagined. so what i will have to do is stop making up worst case scenarios and just calmly wait and see what is going to happen, maybe even try to think of something good that might come up. and while this is important in a job it’s something that’s probably helpful in all kinds of situations.

8. make your spare time count. there might be little, but sometimes less is more. since i started working my spare time really matters to me which is why i waste less of it sleeping in, being hungover or watching stupid sitcoms. of course i still do that, but i also try to find things that give me something to look forward to in advance as well as something nice to look back on during the following week at work. setting specific dates for these special occasions with friends helps tremendously, for example: attend a monthly reading, watch germany’s next topmodel together every thursday, always have sushi together the last wednesday of the month, always go to a pilates class together on sundays. something i intend to improve upon in the future is using my week nights more. it’s often a drag to go out after work but once you do it’s always worth it. and going to sleep at ten is just a waste of time.

9. have „how to work better“ by fischli & weiss as your desktop image. try to read it and think about what it means from time to time.

how to work better

10. recognize the moment when it’s time to move on. don’t stay to long out of convenience.

of course that is just my opinion and i am by no means an expert on this topic – but still maybe some of the suggestions can be of a little help. or do you completely disagree with one of the points? what do you do to make your work more enjoyable?

geduldprobe

ich sollte die apple trailer seite meiden. jedes mal, wenn ich sie besuche entdecke ich dort neue filme, die ich am liebsten sofort sehen werde, die aber erst in einem halben jahr oder noch später im kino zu sehen sein werden. um diese qual nicht allein ertragen zu müssen, möchte ich euch nun auch den mund ein wenig wässrig machen.

the informers

9

away we go
(geschrieben von dave eggers!)

where the wild things are
(kindheitsschwelgerei)

gigantic
(zoey deschanel ist so süß!)

500 days of summer
(dito)

september issue
(das echte „the devil wears prada“)

moon
(creepy!)

sherlock holmes

shrink

brothers
(natalie portman und jake gyllenhaal!)

a serious man
(der neue coen!)

the lovely bones
(ich überlege schon länger das buch zu lesen, jetzt kann ich einfach den film sehen)

btw: neulich gesehen und für empfehlenswert befunden:
adventureland

as you bit into your strawberry lace

endlich mal wieder eine neue compilation. huurah! und: endlich mal wieder ein neuer blog-post!

kasabian ≠ underdog

arctic monkeys ≠ crying lightning
endlich die neue single

ash ≠ return of white rabbit

maximo park ≠ the kids are sick again

x-wife ≠ on the radio

yeah yeah yeahs ≠ heads will roll
looooooove the video!

metric ≠ help i’m alive

uh huh her ≠ explode

the asteroids galaxy tour ≠ push the envelope

marina and the diamonds ≠ i am not a robot
super video – directed by rankin!

santigold ≠ lights out

new young pony club ≠ dress

little boots ≠ new in town
nicht mehr so gut wie meddle =(

la roux ≠ in for the kill
auch nicht mehr so gut wie quicksand

the good natured ≠ivory tower
tolle game boy musik

phoenix ≠lisztomania

cut copy ≠ strangers in the wind

ratatat ≠ wildcat
ich will auch einen tiger anzug!

und hier wie immer die video playlist.

things i love thursday #10 weekend-edition

having my mac back

last friday, when i was just about to write a new blog post, my harddrive died. it was horrible, first hoping it would come back, then realizing it was all gone and i would have to spend the long weekend without watching movies, without listening to music, and without the internet. fortunately i have an apple protection plan and a time machine backup on an external drive. so after having brought notebook and external hard drive to an apple store i was pretty hopeful that it was all going to be alright. and the week without a computer turned out to be not so bad at all. i spent the weekend outside with friends. and during the week i had to work so much i wouldn’t really have had any time for the trusty macbook anyway. one tiny problem arose though: i had not backed up my applications folder, which made it impossible to fully restore the system. my tip to any mac user: do not exclude the applications folder from your time machine backups! in that case you won’t even be able to run the system preferences. apart from that i am most happy that i did save all my fotographs. and a little depressed that the new playlist i had been working on is now lost.

running with music

i have mentioned before that i used to run on my cross trainer while watching episodes of tv shows. i couldn’t do that last week due to lack of laptop so i resorted to listening to music. and voila: running with music is so much better! i was much faster and got rid of a lot more built up aggression and managed to go much longer and further than ever before. i listened to does it offend you, yeah? and digitalism. any other great running music suggestions?

potential new glasses

i went looking for glasses with the fabulous lena last saturday and i actually found a pair i think i will get. have been looking for three years now and never thought i’d be this lucky. what do you think?

looking forward to my summer vacation

last week i booked my flight to portugal. in five weeks today i will already be at the beach in figueira da foz. i can’t wait. this is going to be my bright spot in all the stressful days at work that are sure to come up during the next few weeks. i can’t wait for the food (lulas!), the great weather, all the reading (must buy books at amazon!), seeing movies in english, lying at the beach all day, having absolutely no obligations whatsoever, cheap summer sale shopping, grocery shopping, driving around the country with luis and listening to music.

full days at work

even though long hours suck, it is good to have days at work where you don’t wonder for a second what to do next, where you don’t have to keep yourself occupied with tasks with no immediate relevance, where you don’t have to wonder if you are actually making the money you earn. finally i get to be responsible, and i get to see if i am actually good at this job. i get to learn and experience new things and even though getting a bad critique is tough there are many moments where i can’t hold back and have to say how much i love my job out loud. nina, my colleague, thinks i’m nuts but i’d much rather be nuts and be excited about what i do than be sane and hate it. especially when so many of my waking hours are spent doing it.

raquel reed

raquel reed is a turquoise-haired model from new york with a my little pony tattoo on her thigh. i love looking at her photographs, because they are so pretty yet so special. i recently discovered this video she made and think it’s delightful.

addiction strikes again

ich konnte wieder mal nicht widerstehen und habe mehr bei forever21.com bestellt. die speziellen versandkosten bei einem bestellwert ab 100$ waren zu verlockend. und ich hatte auch mal wieder eine verbündete, mit der ich sie mir nun sogar teilen kann. hoffentlich halte ich meine schätze bald in den händen. schade nur, dass es die grauen schuhe, die ich mir eigentlich noch gönnen wollte, dann doch nicht mehr gab. die nächste wunschliste ist aber schon angelegt und ich werde bestimmt bald wieder schwach werden. schließlich kann man nie genug schleifenhaarbänder und bleistiftröcke besitzen.

bag-tease

i always thought taking a picture of my bag and what i carry around in it would be totally self-indulgent and completely irrelevant to any visitor of this humble blog. but when my friend bubkes recently did it for her bag i found it quite interesting and inspiring. and i have also always enjoyed nubby twiglet’s bag posts. and gala darling’s new year bag contents article. i suppose it is a bit of voyeuristic joy to see what others have with them at all times – because usually you wouldn’t even ask a close friend to disclose all the things she has in her bag. personally i am dying to know what my friend nina hides in hers because it is huge and i haven’t yet seen many things come out of it. so is suspect some fascinating mysteries in there. also i must say it gives me some exhibistionistic pride to disclose the contents of my handbag to you because i must admit that quite a few items in there are picked out with much thought and consideration but due to their life in the depths of a violet patent leather bag they don’t usually get the attention they deserve.

* a refilled bottle of water (was raspberry flavoured water when i first bought it – yum!)
* a hello kitty mirror with a little red comb inside that i got in munich ages ago
* my sucky cellphone with a murakami flower i got at the exhibition in frankfurt
* the book i am currently reading (which is not anna karenina any more because i finally finished that)
* my keys with hello kitty key-caps and a pink lacoste keychain for easy locateability
* a hello kitty pen
* sunglasses from forever 21
* a turquoise patent leather frame wallet from urban outfitters that luis got me in san francisco
* a black coin purse from h&m i usually carry my camera in that do once gave me for christmas
* my ipod touch with pink earphones
* the green and pink h&m pouch i store my ipod in
* mac studio fix compact foundation
* labello lipgloss (passionfruit is the best flavour and colour i think)
* mac lipstick in plumfall, russian red or girl about town
* pink container for pain killers (good to have them handy when you need them)
* miss dior cherie perfume my mom gave me this easter
* pink mango leather gloves against chilly winds while riding my bike
* pink umbrella with a head and feet my cousin got my for my last birthday

obviously i don’t have all of this with me all the time. it depends on the weather (sunglasses / umbrella / gloves) and where i am going and how long i will be gone (book / perfume / water). but a shocking amount of this stuff is with me at all times. and with it memories of people and places i like to think of and have close to me.

so what do you never leave the house without?

p.s. did i mention i love cmd+z??? it just magically brought back 15 minutes of writing i had accidentally deleted.

things i love tues/thursday #9

blossoms and spring

nothing is more beautiful than the beginning of spring. each year the first rays of sun, the first songs of birds, the first buds on trees, the first flowers on the ground make me really insanely happy. it fascinates me how i am filled with the most irrational sense of hope and happiness again every year. even if things are tough i find myself smiling and realize that all this is just because of the seasons changing. it’s like this constant unconscious feeling of wonder that comes to the surface now and then and in between gives everything a certain fairy tale feel.

one of the things i like most about early spring (and early spring is all that really counts) is blossoming trees. i find the sight of a tree covered entirely in pink instead of green completely fascinating and overwhelming. an especially lovely experience i had with a tree’s blossoms this year was standing under it with two friends while another friend shook the tree so we got a wonderful fragrant shower of tiny pink petals that stuck in our hair throughout the entire evening. it was magical. and when i think of blossoms i am reminded of the song cherry blossom girl by air which is i think the only song i know that i wouldn’t mind listening to constantly. and i mean all the time.

picknicking

i think that consuming food outside, ideally sitting on a blanket on the ground, is the most charming way to eat in the entire world. i would take a picknick over a 5 star dinner any day. picknicks are not easy – it’s a lot of work to think of food that can be prepared in advance, transported without being damaged and eaten without proper equipment. and then actually preparing and packing it all. but that is what makes picknicks so special in my opinion. and that they remind me of the birthday parties my mother threw for me when i was little. at the moment my colleague-friend and i try to have our own little picknicks on our lunch-break by going to the market twice a week, buying delicious fresh things and eating them outside on a bench in the sun.

wearing false eyelashes

it’s funny how i sometimes discover something i like only to realize that i have been doing so for quite some time. it’s that way with fake lashes. i have really come to love wearing them recently, taking every opportunity that presents itself to put them on. i bought a couple of different styles, including the hello kitty lashes by mac. but then when i was going through my make up bag the other day i was reminded that i have been collecting and adoring fake lashes forever. i got my first pair for the carnival when i was maybe 11 and i instantly felt like a queen when i wore them. i was not very pretty then but the lashes instantly transformed me into a lady (which was my costume that year). and when i spent new year’s 2000 in amsterdam the only thing i brought back from that trip was a pair of immense glittery fake blue lashes which i have never worn because they are just too ridiculously long. i’m sure i won’t stop loving fake lashes any time soon and i already can’t wait for the weekend when i get to wear them again.

fischli/weiss

peter fischli & david weiss are two contemporary swiss artists who have created a huge amount of very original, entertaining and diverse pieces of art. this ranges from a collection of clay sculptures with a message (called plötzlich diese übersicht) over installations made out of sausage and cigarette butts (die wurstserie) to diversely different series of photographs. but the first piece i knew by them, the piece they are most known for and the piece i still like the best is their film „der lauf der dinge“ which shows an incredible chain reaction set up by the artists. below you can watch a little preview.

the prospect of starting to read a new book soon

i’ve been reading anna karenina for 5 months now and have just crossed page 1000. there are still more than a hundred pages left but that seems manageable now. don’t get me wrong, i have enjoyed reading this great, important book but i am ready to read something less melancholic, more contemporary now. something that i can come home to after a long day at work and still manage to read more than 10 pages of. i already now what my next book is going to be, it’s called „a fraction of the whole“ and is by steve toltz. supposedly it’s a bit like „special topics in calamity physics„. i can only hope.

frühling für die ohren

ich empfehle: video starten, dann text lesen.

mein soundtrack für diesen frühen frühling sind ganz eindeutig die heart strings. beim ersten hören hielt ich sie fälschlicherweise für schnöden easy listening pop. aber da war auch noch winter. und inzwischen habe ich erkannt wie großartig sie eigentlich sind. zuckersüß-leichter twee-pop der in jeder stimmungslage passt: beruhigt bei wut, macht froh bei niedergeschlagenheit, stimmt positiv bei morgenmuffeligkeit, bestätigt bei zufriedenheit, lässt lächeln bei guter laune, ermöglicht ruhe bei nervosität.

mehr erfahren kann man über die londoner auf ihrer zauberhaften internetseite und bei myspace gibt es einige hörproben. her new desaster ist glaube ich mein lieblingssong. am ersten video zur neuen single kids wird wohl noch gebastelt. man sieht, es handelt sich noch um eine relativ junge band, die mich hoffentlich noch mit vielen weiteren alben beglücken wird.

things to do on a train

being on a train is a great opportunity to really take some time for things you normally wouldn’t get around to. it shouldn’t just be about passing the time but about using it and not wasting the unique mood a trip with a train can create.

before boarding the train, buy a magazine you have never read before.

while preparing for your trip upload some new music to your ipod and use the time on the train to make yourself familiar with a new band or album.

write a real letter using paper and a pen to an old friend you haven’t talked to in years. tell them all about what happened since you last met, what you are up to now, what matters to you, what still makes you think of them.

for every stop of the train, imagine what it would be like to get off here. where would you go? who would you call? what would you do? what would it feel like?

take a book that you know you can read entirely during the length of your trip. don’t look up from it once. let yourself drown completely in the story.

learn a poem by heart. everyone should know at least one.

read an old diary. ideally one from exactly 10 years ago. try to remember what things were like back then. what has changed? did you expect thing to turn out the way they did?

write a list of things that were great about last week.

write a list of things to look forward to in the next six months. if that list is to short for your taste think of things to do that you would be able to look forward to. make plans.

write a short story starting with the words: „i was on a train on my way to see xxx. we hadn’t met in more than five years…“

write a short piece about something you know more about than most other people.

make a list of things you want to get for your spring/summer wardrobe.

make up stories about the people living in the houses you pass or sitting across from or next to you.

write a letter to your future self. what do you want to accomplish by this time next year?

make a playlist of your favourite songs to listen to while on a train.

go through the contacts on your mobile phone and text the people you feel you haven’t been in touch with enough.

look out the window, listen to classical music (i really like haydn!) and imagine you were  living 100 years ago travelling somewhere on a train. where are you going? who are you with? what is your story?

try to start a conversation with the person next to you, maybe they have something interesting to tell you.

so what do you usually do when you’re on a train? or a plane? or a bus?