6. türchen ******

heute mal wieder ein link: stuff my girlfriend says

hier dokumentiert jemand die witzigen dinge die seine offensichtlich komplett und genial verrückte freundin so von sich gibt. durchlesen und lachen. viel spaß.

5. türchen *****

heute ein paar tailer zum drauf freuen im neuen jahr:

the imaginarium of dr. parnassus
heath ledgers letzter film. nach seinem tod haben johnny depp, jude law und colin farrell die rolle zu ende gespielt.
ab 7.1.2010 im kino.

up in the air
george clooney ist toll. ab 4.2.2010 im kino.

alice in wonderland
von tim burton. das kann nur großartig werden. ich kann es kaum erwarten. ab 4.3.2010.

a single man
tom fords erster film. mit julianne moore. sehr chic. ab ??.??.2010 im kino.

whip it!
regiedebut von drew barrymore. mit ellen page (juno). ??.??.2010

4. türchen ****

heute gibts einen musiktipp: doll and the kicks. als vorband von morrissey entdeckt (was ja schonmal ein qualitätsindikator ist) und gleich die cd gekauft. bei dem konzert mussten sie acoustic spielen, weil der drummer krank war, und auch das war sehr gut. doll sitzt hübsch angezogen dekorativ auf einer box, singt und bewegt sich wunderbar. besonders mag ich den song „superstar“ – aber ein video gibt es dazu leider noch nicht. ich finde: im auge behalten.

3. türchen ***

weil das mit dem weihnachtsbacken möglichst den ganzen dezember in anspruch nehmen sollte, kommen hier mal ein paar von mir geteste und für gut befundene rezepte.

Nougat-Taler: Sehen gut aus, schmecken gut und dafür lohnt sich die Arbeit auch. Schneller geht es, wenn man den Teig mit einem Messer in Quadrate schneidet statt Kreise auszustechen.

Kubistische Zimtsterne: Mein favorisiertes Rezept für Zimtsterne: sie werden nicht zu hart, schmecken wie sie sollen und statt 1000 Sterne auszustechen schneidet man einfach Dreiecke aus. Außerdem sind sie unkonventionell. Wichtig ist nur, dass man sie zwischen zwei Frischhaltefolien ausrollt.

Kokos-Makronen: Für das sofortige Erfolgserlebnis bieten sich immer Makronen an, und ich mag Kokos am liebsten. Dieses Rezept wird durch das enthaltene Mehl sehr schon saftig (ich glaube zumindest, dass es daran liegt). Wer mag, kann sie hinterher noch lecker in dunkle Kuvertüre tunken.

Hildatörtchen oder Spitzbuben: Machen Arbeit aber gehen dafür auch weg wie heiße Plätzchen. Dieses Rezept kenne ich noch nicht aus eigener Erfahrung, aber ich finde es klingt vertrauenerweckend.

Ausstecherle: Gehören einfach dazu! Sie gehen schnell und man kann hervorragend mit verschiedenen Formen und Verzierungen (s.o.) spielen. Wichtig ist nur, dass der Teig vor dem Ausrollen ordentlich kalt wird. Und dass man wie immer den Teig zwischen Frischhaltefolien statt mit Mehl (zum Durchdrehen!) ausrollt.

Weihnachts-Brownies: Brownies sind immer gut, so auch zu Weihnachten. Man kann sie weihnachtlich pimpen, indem man in den Teig etwas Zimt tut und die fertigen Brownies in kleine Würfel schneidet, die man dann mit Kuvertüre (weiß oder dunkel) überzieht und mit Zuckerstreuseln (am besten Sterne) verziert. Ein bewährtes Brownie-Rezept gibt es hier (170g zartbitter Schokolade, 170g Butter, 140g Mehl, 430g Zucker, bei 180°C)

und diese plätzchen möchte ich dieses jahr noch neu probieren!

hat noch jemand rezept-tipps oder -geheimnisse?

2. türchen **

heute gibt es einen link: luxirare.com

das ist der blog, bei dem ich mich aktuell am meisten freue, wenn es was neues gibt. die tagline ist „killer clothes & fine cuisine“ was schon vieles von dem vereint, worüber ich gerne lese. dabei bleiben die klamotten aber meilenweit hinter den kulinarischen kreationen der hochbegabten und offensichtlich mit einer engelsgeduld gesegneten gesichtslosen verfasserin zurück. bisherige highlights: chips deluxe, pie am stiel, joghurt parfait. diese detailverliebtheit gepaart mit gnadenlosem perfektionismus ist schon fast fetischistisch. viel spaß beim entdecken!

1. Türchen *

Gerade habe ich beschlossen einen Blog-Adventskalender zu machen. Auch als dringend nötigen Wiederbelebungsversuch für selbigen. Es geht los mit Musik und einem wie ich finde sehr gelungenen Video.

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.