news from this side

think about your burial

2011-08-05T12:35:00.001+01:00

today I want to make a suggestion: why not think of what you would like your funeral to be like and tell people close to you. that way, in case it happens that one dies, people know already what to do which is a big help in a difficult mourning time.

me personally, I would like the following song to be played:
Gin Wigmore, Dying day (from album Holy Smoke)

I found, that some people find it okay if you ask them to tell you what they would like. but others are totally blocking even the thought of it. which is a pity, because that it will happen is the only certain thing in life.

when a friend of mine died, her sister found it extremely helpful that she had left a will in which there was also some notes on how she wanted to be buried and where and how she imagined her wake.

so, why not give it a thought and make your afterlife easier for your loved ones still alive by then and struggling with worldly tasks.

2011-05-13T20:54:00.001+01:00

Was die Erde braucht, ist eine Menschheit, die sie nicht länger als Supermarkt, sondern als Heimat betrachtet.

Y. Arthus-Bertrand

pink lupine

2010-09-15T21:41:00.007+01:00

that's how it started in may:

the moss in my garden reproducing

2010-06-10T21:19:00.003+01:00

intercultural gardens

2010-05-13T21:11:00.003+01:00

what a great idea :)

gardens to connect people from different cultural backgrounds
to share their knowledge about plants, food and many other things

the link leads you to a map of intercultural gardens in germany..
http://www.stiftung-interkultur.de/gaerten-im-ueberblick

free school books

2010-05-12T23:43:00.001+01:00

http://www.fhsst.org/

a great initiative!

get rid of your TV

2010-04-28T22:03:00.001+01:00

on the artist's house in Vienna

snow white blue morning

2010-02-23T23:43:00.001+01:00

snow snow snow

2010-01-04T21:59:00.002+01:00

yes, it is cold on this side of the planet. -7 easily. and everything is white outside. after the snow had fallen freshly, the trees and houses had the same colour as the sky. it looked quite different to the world i find outside my window normally..

and because i am quite comfortable inside, sitting in front of my computer, browsing around, i found a lovely website from an artist/illustrator.

but see yourself: http://www.morridesign.com/

adopt a plant

2009-12-09T20:37:00.004+01:00

my mom read about this in the newspaper: it is a website where people can adopt plants others do not want anymore. or in case you do have a plant you can't really handle or don't want anymore you can advertise it for adoption.
i think that is such a cool idea!
the site is in german though.. but perhaps the concept will be adopted to other countries?

http://www.botanoadopt.org/

turning 3rd tea

2009-10-31T23:05:00.002+01:00

say goodbye to being a twentysomething sweetheart.. it was a nice time.
studying hours in comfortable rehearsal chairs in vasity..
trying to figure out how to love one's own body.
wondering if ever anybody could fall truly in love.
taking the big leap to visit another continent on your own.
getting cats even though mom said it's a bad idea.
at last buying a digital camera.
being financially independent.
learning how to make a layer cake.
riding the bicycle to poland with two friends.
drinking too much vodka.
sleeping outside in the park just because.
discussing how we would make the world a better place, now really.
... and many more.
looking forward to a marvelous magic middle

grow your own chili!

2009-09-30T14:14:00.010+01:00

i have to harvest my first home-grown in a few days.
it is fairly easy to grow them yourself on the windowsill.

if you need tips, visit: http://www.chili-balkon.de/ the site is in german
on the link page of the chili-balkon (chili balcony) i found an english site: http://www.g6csy.net/chile/index.html but there is others mentioned too..

anyway, the sites suggest that one can do science with growing them. but let me tell you that my first try was a success and i did not do much about it.

just put some seeds into a pot with earth (planting earth from the shop so). (seeds need to be covered). watered them regularly. (not too moist so they do not rot. but never dry so they can grow..)
when there is flowers, pollinate them with a little paintbrush (not needed when they are growing outside).

and that over a few month..

voila. my own chili is ready to be eaten (not by me so.. i do not like hot food)

pi pi pizza dough

2009-05-06T20:20:00.003+01:00

hello again :)
here my famous pizza dough recipe.
keep it real!

500 gr flour
20 gr yeast (i always use the whole block i buy, otherwise it just rots in the fridge)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/8 l milk and 1/8 l of water (or as i prefer it: just 1/4 l of water)
1-2 tablespoons oil

flour into bowl, make a hole in the middle, put yeast, sugar and lukewarm water in and mix a tiny bit.
let stand in warm place for 15 minutes.
mix other ingredients in and mix well.
leave in warm place for another 15-30 minutes.
roll out..

ready for decoration ;)

bake in oven 20-25 minutes, 200°C

mü mü müsli

2009-05-04T15:54:00.002+01:00

hi.
this is the recipe for self made crunchy müsli.
i got it from conny and she got it in south africa. just for reference ;)

1 cup peanut butter (warm)
1 cup honey (warm)
2 tablespoons lemon juice

8 cups oats
3 cups oat bran
1 cup coconut (grated and dried)
1 cup wheat germ (only the part of the grain which can germinate)
1 cup mixed seeds (sesame, pumpkin, linseed)

mix the liquid and the solid stuff in different containers.
put the liquid stuff onto the dry stuff and mix well. (there will be some crumbs, that will make the crunches..)

back for about five minutes in the oven at 200°C
mix through and leave it in another five minutes.

enjoy :)

muff muff muffins!

2009-05-04T15:34:00.003+01:00

hello.
today i am going to note my favourite muffin recipe so we can all enjoy it wherever we are without hassling our brains to remember the amounts..

(dough for about 24 small muffins, diameter 6-7 cm)
100 gr soft margarine
225 gr sugar
2 large eggs
150 gr plain yogurt
5 tablespoons of milk (not when you make them with carrots)
275 gr flour
4 teaspoons baking agent (i use two scooped teaspoons bicarbonate soda)

around 200 gr chocolate and 100 gr nuts OR carrots and walnuts (put some lemon juice into the dough. but only shortly before baking so the baking soda does it's job in the oven.. then it goes well with an icing from sugar and lemon juice)

if you have it is always nice to put some vanilla flavour and lemon zest in.

mix sugar and fat. add eggs, stir, add yogurt and milk, stir, add flour and baking agent, stir, mix the stuff in which you wanna have in..

bake for 25 min in oven (preheated) 190°C

reduce, re-use, recycle

2009-03-20T20:03:00.003+01:00

hey hoh! have found a wonderful opportunity to get rid of stuff one does not need anymore.
check out: www.freecycle.org
you can join your local group and find stuff for free or give away things you don't need anymore!
great wonderful idea

oh my ...

2009-03-20T19:17:00.002+01:00

reading a book on scientific communication, especially the part on environmental groups and NGOs (non-governmental organisations)i am finding the author telling me about china's GONGOs: government-organised non-governmental organisations. can you believe it?

too true

2009-01-11T22:58:00.003+01:00

note: source unknown.

for all eternal skeptics: the ultimate proof that global warming is happening.

ok go

2009-01-11T22:53:00.003+01:00

my favorite music video. (click onto the title "ok go")

elephant shrew

2009-01-01T13:03:00.002+01:00

probably an short-eared elephant shrew. this one photographed in the zoo of osnabrück, germany.

auf dem kahlen asten im herbst

2009-01-01T13:00:00.000+01:00

how it feels sometimes

2008-12-03T21:20:00.003+01:00

found an interessting passage in a book:

"sometimes i hate people because they can't see where i am. i've gone empty, completely empty and all they see is the visual form; my arms and legs, my face, my height and posture, the sounds that come from my throat. but i'm fucking empty. the person i was just one year ago no longer exists; drifts spinning slowly into the ether somewhere way back there. i'm a xerox of my former self. i can't abstract my own dying any longer. i am a stranger to others and to myself and i refuse to pretend that i am familiar or that i have history attached to my heels. i am glass, clear empty glass. i see the world spinning behind and through me. i see casualness and mundane effects of gesture made by constant populations. i look familiar but i am a complete stranger being mistaken for my former selves. i am a stranger and i am moving. i am moving on two legs soon to be on all fours. i am no longer animal vegetable or mineral. i am no longer made of curcuits or disks. i am no longer coded and deciphered. i am all emptiness and futility. i am an empty stranger, a carbon copy of my form. i can no longer find what i'm looking for outside of myself. it doesn't exist out there. maybe it's only in here, inside my head. but my head is glass and my eyes have stopped being cameras, the tape has run out and nobody's words can touch me. no gesture can touch me. i've been dropped into all this from another world and i can't speak your language any longer. see the signs i try to make with my hands and fingers. see the vague movements of my lips among the sheets. i'm a blank spot in a hectic civilization. i'm a dark smudge in the air that dissipates without notice. i feel like a wondow, maybe a broken window. i am a glass human. i am a glass human disappearing in rain. i am standing among all of you waving my invisible arms and hands. i am shouting my invisible words. i am getting so weary. i am growing tired. i am waving to you from here. i am crawling around looking for the aperture of complete and final emptiness. i am vibrating in isolation among you. i am screaming but it comes out like pieces of clear ice. i am signaling that the volume of all this is too high. i am waving. i am waving my hands. i am disappearing. i am disappearing but not fast enough."

from "memories that smell like gasoline" by david wojnarowicz

autum

2008-10-20T22:49:00.000+01:00

the golden leafs keep falling from the sky. the trees are in their couture dresses. they don't need to pose. the wind is shaking them so their appearance fits into the scene.

wow: sursum

2008-06-13T22:02:00.001+01:00

found the most wonderful website through a friend..

blue

2008-05-22T14:30:00.000+01:00

photo photo photo

2008-05-21T13:13:00.002+01:00

check it out now, the funk soul brothers :) for all of you who love good pictures and people's portraits...

tulips at ayleens house

2008-05-19T16:21:00.002+01:00

found more flowers

2008-05-19T16:19:00.001+01:00

this is a real beauty

erich fried

2008-05-08T18:21:00.002+01:00

"du ungeliebte zeit

von dieser unzeit, in der wir leben müssen. und doch
sie ist unsere einzige zeit
unsere lebenszeit.
und wenn wir das leben lieben
können wir nicht ganz lieblos
gegen diese unsere zeit sein
wir müssen sie ja nicht genaus so lassen,
wie sie uns traf."

happy new year

2007-12-31T23:20:00.000+01:00

hello sweeties out there!
i wish you a very lovely new year and all the best things in the universe!
to the lonely ones i hope for a nice love who does appreciate yourselves and your friends to be around you a lot and giving you loving hugs many many times :)
much love and a huge hug and a thousand kisses from me to you my dearest...

ultraman blue junis

2007-11-13T20:28:00.000+01:00

pigeon babies

2007-09-23T13:11:00.000+01:00

the little cute pigeon mommy outside my window has two little babies now! i think they must have hedged yesterday... i just looked out because it is a beautiful sunny day today and there i saw probably the father feeding one of them :)

die zeit flieht..

2007-07-20T17:43:00.000+01:00

tempus fugit... let's try to catch it!

try walking in my shoes

2007-05-30T21:18:00.000+01:00

my brain is on fire

2007-05-22T16:40:00.000+01:00

me sitting on my table trying to understand statistics (and my data)...

self

2007-05-16T09:12:00.000+01:00

"Three things are extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self."
Benjamin Franklin

train the brain

2007-05-10T21:07:00.000+01:00

okay.. now there is something for you to figure out:

1) there is five houses, each with a different colour
2) in each house there is living a person with another nationality then the others
3) each person prefers a specific beverage, has a favourite vegetable and is living with an animal.
4) none of the five prefers the same beverage, has the same favourized vegetable or is living with the same animal as any of the others.

question: *who is living with a fish*

the hints:
the briton is living in the red house.
the swede is keeps a dog.
the dane likes to drink tea.
the green house is left of the white house.
the owner of the green house likes coffee.
the person who loves cauliflower keeps a bird.
the man who lives in the middle loves milk.
the owner of the yellow house likes tomatoes.
the norwegian lives in the first house.
the pumpkin-fan lives next to the person who keeps a cat.
the man who owns a horse, lives next to the person who likes tomatoes.
the person who prefers maize likes to drink beer.
the norwegian lives next to the blue house.
the german loves cabbage.
the one who loves pumpkin has a neighbour who prefers water.

you can do it!

around the world

2007-05-09T14:23:00.000+01:00

check your geographical knowledge now!

http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/worldmap/worldmap.html

and afterwards get a worldmap to train!
:)

stats

2007-05-09T11:45:00.000+01:00

do you have problems discovering the deep meaning of statistical data exploration?
try this book: andy field: discovering statistics using SPSS.
i can highly recommend it :)

tiny

2007-05-06T18:00:00.000+01:00

did you know that the smallest insect with wings known is a wasp? it is so small you will probably hardly recognize it and if you do you might think it is a particle of dust. they are so small that for them, air is not as light as for us but rather tenacious, perhaps like water or maybe even sirup. therefore the small species have wings which are not laminar but only one hard vein with hardened hairs on it. their latin name is chalcidoidea, in english they are the chalcid wasps, and german for them is erzwespen. please read more about them on the pages of wikipedia: english: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcid_wasp
deutsch: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzwespen

rabbit

2007-05-05T21:52:00.000+01:00

ocean wide

2007-05-05T21:42:00.000+01:00

moon

2007-05-03T22:47:00.000+01:00

yesterday i rode my bicycle to get to my friend's house. it was in the evening, i had finished a meeting with a group in the evening and i decided to take the longer but more beautiful route alongside the arificial lake. i rode through a dark piece of forest from birches and then coming over a tiny hill i looked across the lake and saw the full moon rising reddish over some dark appearing trees. wow. what a wonderful coincidence that i crossed this spot from where one can see this in that moment. i stopped for some mintues and enjoyed the opitcs..

cherry blossom

2007-05-02T16:41:00.000+01:00

thinking again

2007-04-27T12:07:00.000+01:00

the weather is incredible. it is warm like in summer and it hasn't rained for the last three weeks. that is quite unusual for april i think. the trees are flowering and the birds are building their nests. the young people are wearing their skirts and sandals. i wonder about the rain. when will it be raining? i am too lazy to look into the weather forecast. and somehow i just want to experience it without predictions..

a place to dream about

2007-04-25T16:03:00.000+01:00

thinking

2007-04-25T11:25:00.000+01:00

it is only april and the grass is already brown
the little lake i walk along on my way to work is half dried out
the little gallinule-family has lost three out of four children in two days
.. no! i was there again and there were four little ones again! so it means they were just hiding somewhere and it is not as bad as i thought it would be..

dylan

2007-04-09T19:33:00.000+01:00

http://orad.dent.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dylan/lasthowg.html
look here to find bob dylan's last thoughts on woody guthrie
which is a very nice poem about getting lost in a world of bigheaded people and cultural business

lilac easter egg

2007-04-05T12:25:00.000+01:00

The lilac easter egg had decided to leave the party and now was flying in an incredible speed over the roaring ocean in the hope to get to the easter islands where it believed to be safe because it had heard that there, easter eggs were seen as holy beings and not eaten at all!

weniger strom brauchen.. to use less electricity

2007-04-02T13:26:00.000+01:00

moinsen. das hier is leider nur für deutschsprachige menschen..
aber eine sehr gute seit um mal zu schauen wo man überall weniger strom verbrauchen kann als man meistens tut.. und das spart geld und ressourcen! juhu! (auf den titel clicken..)
also viel spaß :)

well, the german page is much nicer, but at least i found an english link too..
http://www.sustenergy.org/tpl/page.cfm?pageName=intelligent_energy_use

glum

2007-04-01T22:02:00.000+01:00

glum - mürisch, verdrießlich
plum - pflaume
slum - armenviertel

shop - abteilung, fabrik, kaufladen
stop - ende, pause, stopp
swop - tauschgeschäft

slaw - krautsalat
slew - menge
slow - langsam, träge, bedächtig

slot - kerbe, nute, spalt
slog - klotzen, verprügeln
slop - krankenspeise, pfütze, schmutzwasser

disobedience

2007-03-28T14:40:00.000+01:00

Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, though disobedience and through rebellion. Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both groteseque and insulting. It is like advising a starving man to eat less.. Oscar Wilde

limerick

2007-03-27T11:57:00.000+01:00

i once had a pretty pink shoe
which made ev'ryone go 'hoo-hoo'.
it fell into a river,
i started to shiver
and then my toes turned blue.

science

2007-03-24T20:12:00.000+01:00

In der Wissenschaft gleichen wir alle nur den Kindern, die am Rande des Wissens hie und da einen Kiesel aufheben, während sich der weite Ozean des Unbekannten vor unseren Augen erstreckt.
In science we all resemble children, who now and then pick up pebbles on the edge of knowledge , while the wide ocean of the unknown stretches before our eyes.
Isaac Newton

springtime

2007-03-22T16:51:00.000+01:00

blob

2007-03-19T11:38:00.000+01:00

to blob = tropfen, klecks, klumpen
quixotic = edelmütig, ritterlich, weltfremd
slyly = listig, schlau
to stagger = schwanken, taumeln
avid = begierig, eifrig, begeistert
to keep someone on tenterhooks = jemanden auf die folter spannen

some new words..

amblypygi

2007-03-18T22:20:00.000+01:00

sorry. there were pictures here but they disappeared. i realized that it is not allowed to show pictures of other people here so now there is no pictures anymore but you can check them out yourself at the following web pages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblypygid
http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.smnk.de/SMNK/02-Forsch-I/02-05-Zoologie/02-05-1-1/2-5-1-1-Bilder/Amblypygi.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.smnk.de/SMNK/02-Forsch-
I/02-05-Zoologie/02-05-1-1/02-05-1-1-Inhalt.html&amp;amp;h=190&w=190&sz=30&hl=de&sig2=djoPMbs5pkdiIiix3_3LJw&start=8&amp;amp;tbnid=VdrcEWwIMeTXJM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=103&ei=0bX9R
c7UN6GYyQKvgZWJDw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgei%25C3%259Felspinne%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dde%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:de:official%26sa%3DN
both 17.03.2007
Amblypygid, tailless whip scorpion; german: Geißelspinne
flat body, front pair of legs with pincer-like fangs.. eating insects they catch, most species hiding under stones during daytime, need humid environment
.. i found an exuviae in coffee bay when i was sitting on a rocky ledge on a river playing drums. i photographed it but wasn't sure what kind of animal i had found.. now i know :)

and it needs work

2007-03-18T13:38:00.000+01:00

happiness is not a destination. it is a method of life.
burton hills, author

love yourself

2007-03-17T19:50:00.000+01:00

need to do something urgetly and need some web distraction? wanna find something cool to do when bored and frustrated with yourself and the world sourrounding you? you want to learn something about yourself or your friends?
check this: http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/

ok go

2007-03-17T19:46:00.000+01:00

okay. here one of the best music videos i have seen..
OK Go on Treadmills, Dancing: okgo.net
Also visit myspace.com/okgo

god

2007-03-17T17:39:00.000+01:00

from Gus Ferguson:
I believe that God
encrypted the universe
for fear of hackers.

top pope (she)

2007-03-17T17:15:00.000+01:00

read about a very good woman climber:
http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/problog/josune/

killing at its best

2007-03-17T17:13:00.000+01:00

wanna learn something about religion? wanna develop yourself?
http://www.samharris.org/media/killing-the-buddha.pdf

german comic

2007-03-17T17:10:00.000+01:00

this i made during the soccer championship..
http://kiltraza.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html

found this

2007-03-17T16:57:00.000+01:00

blog quote:
Soyapi Mumba from Malawi:
For past week, I have been participating in the 2007 Nonprofit Software Development Summit. If I previously mentioned that I would attend this summit then it was lie because nobody attends conferences organized by Aspiration. Everyone participates!
soyapi.blogspot.com