4th December

Traditionally the day of Saint Barbara. Here it is custom at this day to cut branches from the bare trees and put them in a vase so the 'dead' wood will revive again and bear fresh leaves and flowers at christmas. I think it is quite a symbolic meaning for the time of advent, when consciousness of the worlds darkness and misery is starting to break away and to show some glimpse of light and hope.

But then I wonder if it is still possible to notice all these unobtrusive things, starting from darkness and silence, in our ever more glaring and loud world... and if anyone even wants to percieve them.. There are hard to find, as they are often outside of our world of daily routines and habits which doesn't know of much time to breathe and look around. But somehow I think it might be worth it to look for them nevertheless.

3rd December

I seriously started studying for a terrible exam.. to get at least something done I dumped the pc under the table and sat just me and my script.. for several hours. Actually I was surprised that some things seemed not so difficult anymore, after overcoming my general aversion to the subject..

Studying was interesting, especially as I never would have thought that attempting to study logic might turn out so effective for instant meditation about all the worlds issues. In fact, there were so many interesting thoughts flowing through my mind, but at the same time it felt like a dream so I could not really catch them and make them stay..

Now I have a hard time remembering them; but I wonder if they are still somewhere in my mind, ready to come up at the right moment?

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 :)

unexpected answer

some time ago I was wondering about what actually characterizes men (or women respectively). thanks to my special oracle (aka skype status messages) I found a surprising hint:

Real men write PostScript!

Just that it makes me wonder about real women....

munich loves you

the crux with being innovative

it seems a sad fact that in order to be innovative and form something nice and cool, you have to really know the basics... so no way around the old stuff :(

about life

"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to
ask, "Compared to what?"" -- Sydney Harris

land unter

Wenn einem das Wasser bis zum Hals steht, sollte man den Kopf nicht hängen lassen."

[Karl Valentin]