Sunday, February 20, 2011

Guggenmusik

Guggenmusik is a special kind of music which is part of the carnival taking place in the Alemannic regions of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Here are two of the many different bands (in the first video you will be able to recognize the song from around minute 2:15 ;) ):



Sunday, February 13, 2011

Crime Time

I’m a great fan of criminal stories – both as books and films. One of my favourite crime series at the moment is “Criminal Minds”. This is mainly because of two special characters, Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness). Both are hyper smart and have special gifts – Reid has got an eidetic memory, for example. Here are some scenes of the series with both of them:



There are other crime series with freaks and nerds (when I use these expressions, I always mean this in a positive sense), like Navy CIS (McGee and Abby), Psych (Shawn) and of course Numb3rs (Professor Charlie Eppes a.k.a. David Krumholtz):



I think I like them, because all of them – regardless how big the difference is – are closer to my own self than any of the “normal” characters :)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Everyday Blogging

I really admire those of you who are keeping up their blogs by writing about everyday happenings. For me this is difficult, because what I find interesting in other blogs I always think others will find boring in mine. I have just finished reading “Jane Austen’s Letters” and I’m astonished how she fills many pages just writing (usually to her sister Cassandra) about what she has done all day, who she met and of course the latest events among family and friends. Of course, personal letters are different than a blog which can be read by anyone. One cannot tell too many details, but I think my inability to write about everyday things is that I’m not a “small talker”. Or rather, I’m just learning to be one. Meanwhile I can talk quite a while about “the weather and the state of the roads”, as Jane Austen would put it ;)

BookCrossing.com...

When I think about last week I suppose my most interesting days have been Friday and Saturday. One reason was that from Tuesday till Thursday I suffered from low blood pressure and even had to cancel a dentist appointment. On Friday Hermann and I attended a birthday party and in the evening I released a book into the wild. This is the BookCrossing term for putting a book where other people can find it and hopefully take it home and register it at the BookCrossing site. So I left a book on a park bench (wrapped into a plastic bag, of course). Yesterday morning it had still been there, but I’m hoping for many passers-by today afternoon, especially as the weather is fine, and that one of them will take the book.

Yesterday we received the good news that one of the Armenian children we are sponsoring no longer needs our help, because the family is doing much better financially. We also received the request to support another child, which we agreed to. Astghik is 12 years old and suffering from cerebral palsy and eye problems. As if this wasn’t enough her father left the mother before the child’s birth, so the two have to get along by themselves. At least the girl is able to attend school despite her disabilities and via the sponsorship she can get some medical help, too, apart from other things like food and clothing.

This afternoon I hope to be able to go for a walk, but this depends on what Miss Migraine says.