Mrs. Fantastico

I'm not a cat person. I like cats, but I'm not a cat person. I like dogs, too. But we have cats. And I tend to talk about my cats kinda often. But that's because my cats are reeeealy weird.

Kitty (short for Mrs. Kitty Fantastico), for instance, is a very strange cat. Since our other cat Miou-Miou suddenly jumped her and tried to kill her, she lives in my room. She's a good roomie, you know, never leaves a mess, I never find any empty beer cans lying around and she's quiet most of the time. But the other day, I woke up in the middle of the night and there she was, sitting next to me, just staring at me. She didn't move. Her yellow eyes were fixed on me and I felt like she had something to say. I have no idea what, though, coz I don't speak cat, but I think she was trying to scare me. She's probably trying to get rid of me. She also does this thing, where she gets up and leaves as soon as I get near her. Or when I'm in the shower, she starts meowing, like she needs to get in the bathroom right that moment or she'll pee in my shoes. But I'm not budging. I even thought about some payback for all those times I got out of the shower with shampooed hair just to open the frigging bathroom door for her: I'm going to get up in the middle of the night, when she's sleeping and I'm just going to stare at her. I'll make some noise so she wakes up and sees me, staring. Vengeance will be mine.

"You can't help that. We're all mad here." - The Cheshire Cat

Song of the Week

"Landslides"

First performed by Fleetwood Mac, this song has been covered over and over by numerous bands
from the Smashing Pumpkins to the Dixie Chicks. It was featured on the album Fleetwood Mac.

This is one of my favorite songs ever. I love the version by Fleetwood Mac, but I also like Tori Amos' and the Dixie Chicks' versions. Even though it's the same song, the interpretations very different. The Tori Amos version makes is so quiet and peaceful that I feel like I'm standing on a snowy hill, contemplating my life. The Dixie Chicks version is very warm and, well, they just have amazing voices. I think this song was/is very personal for Stevie Nicks. Getting older and realising that life goes on are things we deal with on a daily basis. This song reflects this.

Other songs by Stevie Nicks or Fleetwood Mac which I like a lot are "Crystal", "Little Lies" and "Gypsy".

Check it out:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CX6WHvxTYHs

My Band

I've been thinking for some time now about starting to play the piano. I want to be able to play like Diana Krall or Rufus Wainwright. And I want to sing, even though I'm no good at singing. I figured that there are a lot of singers who can't sing, so who cares. As soon as get a hang of the whole piano thing, I wanna have my own band.
I'll have a drummer chick called Paco, a bass player called Lou and who has peroxide blond hair, a guitarist called June who's obsessed with Samuel L. Jackson. (Lou can also play the saxophone). Of course they can all sing. I'm not sure what the hell we'll be playing, but we'll think of something. Some jazz I guess, some punk, lil' bit of everything...I'll see you at our first gig.

Song of the Week

"Wuthering Heights"

This song was released 1978 and was a total hit. Kate Bush was soon established as one of the top music artists

Kate Bush is special, and so is her music. That, and because I love Emily Brontë's masterpiece "Wuthering Heights", I chose this song. Kate Bush can do so much with her voice. First time I heard this song, her voice kinda scared me. But actually it's amazing what she can do with it and at the latest when she goes "Heathcliff, it's me, Cathy..." I get carried away.

Other songs I really love from her are "Babooshka" and "Moving". Not only are the lyrics moving, but the melodies just get me. She's not conventional and nothing short off brilliant. She reminds me a lot of Tori Amos, which might not be a coincidence.

Check the clips out:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gfGc4wcil2g

Don't You Tell Me

I've finally gone with the flow and got myself an iPod. It's a mini, which nowadays is already totally retro. So today I walked around with my headphones on all day, listening to the Best of Me, which means everything from 80s hits like "Oh Mickey" to Neil Young's "Down by the River" and the Clash's "Come on Eileen".

I don't think listening to music is anti-social. While the Bangles were singing just for me, I watched the world around me go on and on. Not only did I feel like I was in a musical, but I noticed how people are different when you aren't really listening to them. Either they just ignore the fact that you're not hearing a word they're saying, or they give you that look that's supposed to tell you that they want to tell you something and that you should take those wretched headphones off. I just smiled back derisively and nodded my head rhythmically (or so I hope) to Tenacious D's "Tribute". Just so you know: they don't like it. But hey, do I care? Do you?

Music also changes the listener. While listening to the Jam's "A Town Called Malice" I felt like dancing on the table. Alisson Krauss singing "That Kind of Love" made me want to curl up in a corner and cry. That all happened within five minutes.

Do you know how some people say that listening to the wrong kind of music can make you commit suicide? Usually they mean stuff like Death Metal and so on. I must agree, that there is music that makes me feel suicidal. But that's stuff like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. Listening to that kind of music feels like a hand groping around in my bowels. I just want it to stop, so a bullet would be appreciated in a moment like that. But really, statistics showed that Country fans have the highest suicide rate. Is Willie Nelson the Devil? Marilyn, you're off the hook.

Song of the Week

"Stand and Deliver"

This song from Adam and the Ants was released in 1981 and is a typicall New Romance song. New Romance was pretty in between 1979 and 1982. Adam and the Ants started out as a New Wave/punk/post-punk group, but evolved into a pop band. I can't say that I like everything by the Ants, some of their songs are downright awful. I suppose it depends on what you are looking for in the music.

The reason I chose "Stand and Deliver" is a) Adam Ant (alias Stuart Leslie Goddard) is one amazing looking man (or was) in those leather pants and with those tons of make-up on, b) the whole neo-romantic style is kinda cool and c) the song really gets you going. Adam Ant uses his voice in that deliberate off-key way, which gives him a "Do I care?"-attitude. Plus: I can't help it, but the 80s...hmm

Watch the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPgHbt0ODr4

16 Going On 35

The educated teenage girl has seen "Sex and the City" and knows what expects a woman in the world of relationships in her mid-thirties - thanks to Carrie Bradshaw and co. Now, even though our thirties lye way ahead of us, we wouldn't have expected to be faced with the same dilemma than the four fabulous women: When the hell are we supposed to have children? Do we want to get married one day? Are our parents' values worth anything in the world of tomorrow?

Regarding question number one: Let's say I want to go to a university and then have a job I actually like. I will probably want to get somewhere with what I do and have a better than reasonable salary. Someday I'll want to travel the world. Am I going to have Junior between studying and my great job? Will I be a working mum? Or do I want to have my baby after I got the Oscar for Best Director? Wait, I'd have to win it before I'm forty, because that biological clock doesn't stop ticking my friend. And hey, when am I going to find the partner who will play the other major role in the process of procreation? Timing...

Problem number two is, that we don't really know what marriage is supposed to do for us anyway. For some marrying might just be a sign of true commitment from their men. But what's that worth when divorce is man's emergency brake? Or is marriage what you do when you want to have kids? That's not really a problem nowadays, except maybe in places where the no-pre-marital-sex thing is still very in. I guess every person has to find the meaning of matrimony by/for himself...

Do you see where I am going with all this? I'm sixteen, and I'm already worrying about the tick-tick-ticking of my biological clock. Times sure have changed...

Smile...

That's a great song...do you know it? Smile, when your heart is aching, smile, even though it's breaking, when there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by...you'll see that life is still worth while, if you just smile...
Right know I hope I can make you smile...

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."
- Oscar Wilde

"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."
- Oscar Wilde

"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."
- Dorothy Parker

"Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place."
- Billy Cristall

"I know nothing about sex because was always married"
- Zsa Zsa Gabor

"Well, evil just compounds evil, doesn't it? First, I'm sentenced to a computer tutorial on Saturday. Now I have to read some computer book. There are books on computers? Isn't the point of computers to replace books?"
- Cordelia

Tissue Schmissue Issue

I think science is wonderful. It means that man is trying to understand the world around him. Sometimes I even ask myself how a human being can survive without knowing how everything around him works. We live in this world - shouldn't it be our priority in life to understand it?

This week all the 10th and 11th graders have to work in groups on scientific/medical topics. MY group has the to work on the topic "Tissue Engineering". It's a method with which you can make organs grow artificially. It sounds very sci-fi-ish, but believe you me, it ain't. Because we don't look at mice with ears on their back or people whose kidney has been grown outside of their body. No. We get to read boring papers and ask boring questions about boring things.

The only entertaining thing is the bickering of my co-pseudo-scienteers(who are all women). I hate group projects. I really really do. I always end up doing all the work. This time, I kinda sat back and enjoyed the show. Everybody wants to take charge. So I don't have to. Yey!

Lame Rocks

Well, I don't have to tell anyone that nerds and freaks are the new cool. Actually, it's always been that way, but to keep it cool, the other side has to pretend it isn't, yadda yadda yadda, excrutiatingly tiresome topic... Anyway, making the "losers" heroes has always been the storytellers smartest move. All the other "losers" and "freaks" can relate and stuff. Here are few really great stories that I've read/seen lately and that I really enjoyed.

Heroes (TV show)

Random (or maybe not) people are discovering newly gained powers. They do not know each other, but soon their paths cross. Their destinies are linked. But how? That's just what they want to find out...


Just amazing. Makes you want super powers like the ability to fly, or walk through walls etc...The storyline(s) is intriguing and the actors are just perfect. The development of the whole thing and of the characters is actually believable. Believe me when I say that it is very much worth watching!

Rome (TV show)

The who’s who of Rome: A soap that evolves around the lives of the antique Rome’s celebrities like Julius Caesar and his family and two losers whose lives are shaken by the intrigues and political games that reign Rome.

A lot of sex and violence, which conveys the watcher the ambiance of the time and place. It’s thrilling and works you over.

Spartan (novel)

The story unfolds around two brothers, two sons of a Spartan family. One has a lame foot and is abandoned by his father who is forced to do so by Spartan law. He is found by a shepherd who belongs to the race of the Helots, once proud people who have been enslaved by the Spartans. He grows up to be a warrior himself, even though he is never told of his true provenience. The other becomes a proud warrior of Sparta. One day their paths meet and from then on their lives change…

This tale takes you on a historical and emotional journey. Not only does the author create scenery that sends you back time, but he lets room for interpretation and keeps enthralling you with an epic plot. Plus, this story incites one’s interest history. You might even learn something…

The Covenant

Four really hot guys have powers. Or rather, THE POWER. They're warlocks, witches, whatever and are the descendents of the founding fathers of Ipswich, therefore called the Sons of Ipswich. Problem N°1: The Power is addicitv and wears your body down, so they have to be careful. Problemo N°2: The 5th Son of Ipswich has returned, to avenge his ancestors who were kicked out of the Covenant for...I don't know why. Of course there is a chick. A nice one, too. So the battle begins...

For women: These guys are really cute and very well-built. And you get to see (almost) everything of the sweetness.
For men: The chick has a shower scene! Plus, she lives in a dorm with her friend and they are mostly walking around in their really small pajamas.
For all: Nice fight scenes, a lot of eye candy (apart from the cuties) and a moderately intelligent storyline There are a lot of spiders, though. All in all really not bad, the only problem is that you could do the same in an average "Buffy" episode. But if you can, do watch it, just for the immense amount of half-nakedness.

To Cool For Winter

Where the %&*ç is the snow? I don't ask for much, but a winter without snow, that's just friggin' depressing. You can't make any snowmen (which are kinda scary), you don't know why it has to be cold when there is no friggin' snow and everything is just so...not full of snow.

The grey days are cool, though. There's a breeze, which sometimes is even warm (is that good?). I feel like I'm back in England.
But mostly, I just freeze my not that small behind off. I was in the city, when I saw this chick wearing, like, nothing. She had a mini on with a really inefficient panty hose underneath and was wearing ballerinas. And the jacket she was wearing wouldn't keep you warm in summer. I was wearing a winter coat that probably keeps you warm in space and about three layers of T-shirts and sweaters.

Honestly, how do these chicks do that? Do they take some kind of arctic-fish-cold-resistance-powder pills? Or are they like yogis and just ignore the cold with their unbelievable mental powers? Or maybe they have some Russian ancestors?
It's just amazing what people do just to be cool. I mean, I'm a vain person, I don't deny it. And occasionally, I do make sacrifices for the sake of coolness or whatever. But with like -5°C outside, I budge. I don't give a damn about how fat I look in those eight sweaters. Girls just wanna be warm. Yeah, right.

New Year

Now that I have survived the agonies of Christmas, I am looking forward to a totally boring New Year.

Happy New Year

Did You Know...

...that the Brookly Bridge was the largest supsension bridge

in the world on it's completion?

The B.B. stretches 1825m over the East River,
connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn.
It cost $15.1 million to build and 27 people died building it. The characteristic pointed arches are typical for the Gothic style. There was a rumor that the bridge would collapse on May 30, 1883, three weeks after it's opening. In 2006 a cache was discovered, which was suspected to be a remnant from the Cold War.

Did You Know...

(...that you're about to learn something?

I think that besides reading this really philosophical stuff here, you should also be learning something. That's why once in a while I'm gonna give you some (maybe not very helpful but) interesting information about this nice little place I like to call earth and those nasty creatures living in it called humans.
Maybe one day, it will help you. Sooo: whenever you see that title (up there, do you see it?), you know that something really interesting is about to be burned into your brain. )

Did yo know that every fifth person speaks Chinese?

Linguists aren't sure whether to describe the varieties of Chinese as "dialects" or "languages". The most populous is Mandarin (~800 million), followed by Wu (~80 million) and Cantonese (~90 million). Depending on the classification scheme, there are between six and twelve main regional groups of Chinese. Standard Mandarin, based on the Beijing dialect, is the official language of the Republic of China and one of four official languages of Singapore (together with Malay, Tamil and English). Standard Cantonese is one of the official languages of Hong Kong (together with English) and together with Portuguese the official language of Macau.

Line Rider

Funny game: www.linerider.de

It's totally awsome and funny. Make the little man fly. Check it out.

Luv, moi

Halloween

What do you know 'bout Halloween?

I can tell you this: Originally, Halloween was a Pagan holliday of the celts. Samhain (pronounciation: sowen) is the equal of New Year. It's about leaving bad habits and stuff behind and moving on to a better year (I could go all New Agy and Wiccan on you, but I'll be nice enough to spare you). It normally takes place between the 10/31 and the 11/1. The Christians have transformed it into All Hallows Eve which is on the 10/31 and All Saints Day and All Souls Day, which take place on the 11/1. Those are the days when we pray to the dead and remember them (compare: El Dia de los Muertos in Mexico on the 2nd of Nov.).


So, now you know.Let's never forget about the sweets, though. I think that's really important to.

I hope you'll have a really nice holliday, whatever you wanna call it.

Luv, moi

Riddler

I can not say I really like math, but I like the challenge and the feeling of victory when I have succeeded at some nauseatingly dumb exercise. Same thing with riddles. Most people with average intelligence feel good when they solved a riddle - except if they are Buddha or some other really moderate wise man. So here a few for the bored brains of the readers.

I turn my head and you stand still,
I turn it again and you go forth,
With crooked teeth I smile at you.
What am I?

If you keep me you have me,
If you give me away, I cease to be.
What am I?

Cold or Furry

I know, everyone of you must have asked him/herself this really important question: if you could choose, what would you rather be, a werewolf or a vamp? It's a really difficult question, I know...
Maybe I should list all the cons and pros, so you can make a really rational decision. So, here we go.

Werewolf:

pro: You get to be a really big wolf
con: You might try to eat your relatives
pro: Depending on what books you read, you might know that as a werewolf you get to be in a pack, which means that there is a lot of bonding going on and the relationships to your fellow werewolves are really deep (so you're very sociable)
con: You might be a little bit bad tempered sometimes, but hey, everyone had his moods...
pro: You are really hard to kill
con: For some reason people think that being a werewolf makes you a good target for major killing
pro: You can change from animal to human (again depending on the book or movie, your ability to change depends on moon cycles and stuff like that)

Vampire:

pro: You're really strong (like bench-press-a-car strong)
con: You need to drink blood (now, I'm not a great fan of the metallic taste, but I suppose that changes when one becomes a vamp)
pro: You get to b really cool
con/pro: You need to stay out of sunlight
pro: You're really hard to kill
con: Getting dinner is always connected to stalking and hunting
pro: You don't age
con: You can't eat chocolate ice cream anymore
pro: Somehow vampires always get to have a lot of sex
con: People try to kill you
pro: Easy to accessorize nowadays
con: Fetish fashion is so out
pro: Ever seen a fat vamp? Whatever they were before, they always turn into Calvin Klein underwear models

Now let’s compare: A vamp is a corpse walking around, whereas the werewolf is a hot headed person who changes into a wolf once in a while. While the vampire has to stay out of sunlight, he can control his urges a bit better than a werewolf. Werewolves have a pulse and can reproduce themselves. They are both able to do all that nifty telepathic stuff. There’s a lot more I could mention here, but I’m tired and…well, that’s all actually.

So there you go. If you ever need to make that decision, I hope this helps you.

So tired

Today I had the feeling that everybody around me was sucking the energy right out of me.
Hundreds of people passed me by, entangled in their own thoughts, not minding anyone around them. After half an hour in the crowd, my eyes burned with tiredness. I could barely keep them open. I couldn't focus. (And now I have an exam.) Crowds are bad...so tireeeeeeedddd