my blue face

blow your mind

By now it is a well-known trick to break obsessive perfectionism: Do something out of your routine. Like taking the wrong bus, remain in your train one or two stops too long and see where it takes you to, take the other turn on your way home.. or the other staircase.

On my hitlist these days are: inviting a stranger for tea (to be precise, someone who thinks you are your own sister), going to perform music knowing only place and time but not people and pieces, playing scotland yard with the public transport, greeting someone with good wishes without needing anything from them, not even information. Probably most of these things sound rather trivial. Maybe they are, but one thing i've learned is that doing simple things you're not used to can be quite difficult.

The results of this study are quite varied, with one common element: the outcome was always interesting and positive, as well as relaxing. Like fresh air blowing through my head, taking away all the dullness and over-focussedness of everyday life. The best experience was being surprised by the world, even sometimes surprising myself (which usually proves even more difficult). And as surprises are, one remembers them and the special aspect of the world which made them happen.

Baseline of the whole thing: I warmly recommend you to try breaking your routines (that is, if you do have them). One thing to keep in mind though is to try this when you're alone - you can't coordinate so well when you don't know what you're going to do next!

experiment of the day

is it possible for a group of geeks to party with normal people without being uncovered?

[edited 22.02.09: the answer is no]

random guest list

I wonder how it would be to make a party with all the people that I see online at the moment in skype.. Probably the best description would be 'quite randomized social experiment', as a lot of them are from totally different groups and have never met before, so the constellations would be rather interesting. Best would probably be if I was not present at that event, so the unifying factor would not be there either.. (and noone could eat me in case of things not working out ;)

2nd December

well... at least still for me, as i havent slept yet..

the reason - as you could probably guess - is some piece of badly coordinated team work... but anyway, this situation hopefully will give me some incentive to take some more responsibility next time and organize it better..

apart from that.. there were a good amount of interesting impressions today which i realized because i decided to leave my earplugs out for the next time (let's see if i will manage till christmas). i tried this before and it was an interesting period, as breaking one habit often brings you to try completely 'random' things alongside your daily paths. (it starts from literally changing paths by taking another road on the way to the station, or taking a train one stop too far even when not exactly knowing the direction, but also just doing things differently can be really interesting..)

the most interesting encounter i had today:
a woman selling chestnuts offered me one as a present after i had finally managed to unlock my bike at the station in that terrible cold. she told it would warm my fingers.. it was really sweet and at the same time a clever move: she actually wanted to talk to me and ask me to not put my bike too close to the stand as it had been blocking the electricity box... of course this was not a problem at all, but i really admired this way of bringing some stranger into a good mood before asking some favour of them..

1st December

Waking up this morning, I realised that it was time to open the first door of my little christmas calendar. As every year, I am happy about it but at the same time worried:
there are exams coming up, a lot of things are to be done before christmas, time is running out, there's lack of presents, too many christmas celebrations...
for this reason I wanted to start some sort of calendar on my blog; for me and for you to remind ourselves to think about what we are preparing to celebrate, to reconsider some habits and attitudes, so there won't be too much of this feeling: 'christmas?!?! already?!?! but i'm not there yet...'
take care

CRACK!

... and I really got a scare from that unexpected and loud noise.. but actually it was just a pine cone I had put on the heating exploding and spitting kernels all over the place :)

one photo..

.. and so many completely different interpretations! I was really surprised how differently people percieve the same image, showed to them without any specific context. The spontaneous reactions ranged from shocked (it looks really violent, borderline) to completely enthusiastic (oh, so sweeet!). Especially these opposites make me wonder how much the reaction of these people tells about themselves, their experiences in life? And at the same time it again strenghtens the point of photography being something very subjective, in this case even independently from the photographer.

What makes a man a man? (C. Aznavour)

Recently I realized that holidays are coming through (just before they finish, but better late than never). Good indicators are usually that old 'fun' things revive, like cooking, knitting, building things, decorating.. in short, everything that does not involve computers or out of the house communication. So I feel a bit weird, noticing that these activities stunningly fit to the classical stereotype of a 'housewife' :)
This put me on the question as to which degree the old stereotypes about men and women are still alive/natural/valid? In the end I could not really say what makes someone 'classify' as 'man' or 'woman' (biology excluded). Any ideas?

Now I want to know it

On the right hand side you find a poll about a question I was discussing with a lot of people. I want to know your opinion so please vote, or if your opinion doesnt fit put a comment. In particular I would like to know if also on this issue (under which several people in my aquaintances are suffering) the general opinion diverges from the actual behaviour of people. Of course this is only a very limited approach, but I'm not a sociologist so I have to use what comes my way.
Thanks already for your cooperation!