Smile, you're alive!

Occupying banking

2012-01-02T21:45:00.000+01:00

If someone had told me half a year ago that I would be working for a bank fulltime and loving it, I would have been completely incredulous. For all my principles of keeping an open mind and trying not to judge, banking was among the things I could hardly imagine myself doing. To have money as the content of my work, to worry about interest rates, capital, credit lines, wasn't a very romantic or fulfilling picture.

And it wasn't very likely either. Mind you that in my education I haven't put great emphasis on the kind of skills commonly associated with banks. Sure, I know a little bit about industrial accounting, have completed a two-year round in a big company as an apprentice, but first and foremost I have spent the last years of my life as a social science student at university doing scholarly things like reading, traveling, hearing lectures, and learning a bunch of languages. Also, sociologists around here have a reputation of being somewhat to the left of the political spectrum, while the future bankers - your clichée economics majors - are generally deemed a lot more conservative.

So if life were a straight line I would probably be protesting with the occupy movement now or writing about what is wrong with our financial and political system today (I still might, just wait *g*). Instead I am sitting at a desk 40 hours a week working for a financial institute associated with one of the biggest banks in Germany. And I'm happy with it!

A huge part of my fun at work is owed to my position in the company. I am a trainee in the business development department and thus the topics I am concerned with have a lot to do with societal, economic and technological trends. Yes, the angle is financial, and the products I constantly learn more about are deposits, exchange tradeable funds, and credit cards, but I enjoy the complexities of this new and unknown field. I am surrounded by intelligent and fun people who enjoy what they are doing. They do not comply with any of the stereotypes that the news proliferate, when they report about the debt crisis and wall street execs. Those people exist somewhere, I am sure, but my definition of banking and bankers has become a lot more concrete in the last three months and I have gained respect for the people making a living with it.

Of course understanding the financial industry is not the same as saying it is all good. There are a lot of things that need improvement. More transparency is probably the biggest change I would wish for and possibly also the one the financial industry is most afraid of, because money is earned every time customers do not fully understand a product. A lot of the revenue is justified however, because banks are in the risk management business and taking a risk off people's hands should be rewarded. But in the long run, we might all be better off, if kick-backs from selling expensive and complex products were replaced by annual fees for bank advisory services. My knowledge of the matter is still thin of course and tomorrow another piece of the puzzle might come to me that changes my outlook. But that's part of the beauty of a new job, so much to learn!

2012 will bring many new things to my life and I will keep shifting activities for a while to come. One of them is blogging and it remains something I truly enjoy. I modestly hope to contribute something to your life as well as my own. I hope you are all doing well and have started 2012 with good energy. Take this smile and have a great week :)

A New Year

2011-12-31T16:45:00.004+01:00

I can't find better words than Neil Gaiman today. He says what I wish for everybody. I for one expect great things in this new stretch on the calendar and it feels like there is a lot to be discovered. The best from last year I will take with me, the rest I will leave there. Please enjoy your start into 2012 and share your joy and positive anticipation of what is to come with your loved ones!

Life after work

2011-12-15T20:14:00.000+01:00

Wow, life has flown by for the past months. I was so busy that I hardly got time to reflect on all the changes my new job has brought with it. Life before was about family, studies, travel and friends far away. Now that I live in a big city and work full-time it's about work, housekeeping, shopping, and friends in my city.

Of course I miss some things from my old life. I have seen much less of my family, which sometimes makes me sad, because I got so used to having them around me regularly. All the happier I was when my granddad turned 90. Happy birthday again, Rudi! I miss my brother, who has been traveling for months all around the world and will be spending Christmas away from Germany this year. I don't miss my studies too much, but I have noticed that with the end of constant language practice some of my vocabulary is lost (mostly my Spanish, although some Portuguese is kept fresh thanks to doing capoeira). The time to travel will be very limited from now on, but I have already started to dream about where I might go and where to spend my precious free days next year. All that skill at travel planning I have amassed over the last years shouldn't go to waste, right?! Spain is high on the list and who knows, maybe I will be joined by another traveller from the other end of the world.

Mostly though I really have a lot of fun with my new lifestyle. For one, having money gives a nice feeling of freedom although I expected it to make even more of a difference than it does so far. A more noticeable change is that I now live in the same city as many of my oldest and dearest friends. We spend some hours every week to get together and do sports and eat. A week ago we were baking cookies for christmas at different homes on three days in a row. "Weihnachtsplätzchen backen" is a fine German tradition :) And with my new flat being 4 times as big as my old tiny room in Augsburg also comes the opportunity to invite more people to my home. I have already tried it on a few occasions and am quickly getting used to being a host. At the end of the year I will have people over to play videogames and just hang out at my place. I am happy to start a new year here and get an opportunity to build my new life with the people and activities I want in it. Before January I will take some quiet time and imagine what I want to achieve in 2012. Some things I might share here, others I will keep to myself. But you can expect another blog post soon, where I will tell you about my first experiences of what it is like to be a banker after being a sociology student for so long :) Take care and have a nice week!

On Work

2011-10-03T13:42:00.004+02:00

Then a ploughman said, "Speak to us of Work."
And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite. ... And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret. ... And what is it to work with love? ... It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit ... Work is love made visible.

I am starting my new job tomorrow. It is not only my new job, but also in most ways my first. I am not anxious or afraid, but tense, curious, and slightly uncertain. Will I like what I have to do for money? Will I be able to use my creativity in new ways to further goals other than ideals and my own good life? How can I bring my personality into my new environment to make it richer and not lose myself in work thus making everyone poorer? What new potentials will this unleash in me? What will I discover about myself that nothing up to this point has brought to the surface?

Maybe I have become idle and lost touch with the procession of the seasons. If so, I am going to make up for it now by bringing myself to a new task and breathing life and love into it.

The waiting has an end and the energy is starting to rise again. Here I come :)

And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire--
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

(Find the full text of Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet" here. The last quote is from the "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters)

Magic of Technology

2011-08-15T14:47:00.004+02:00

Fascinating! I wish you a magical week :)

About the economy

2011-08-07T12:44:00.005+02:00

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." This is the starting quote from Charles Dickens' classic masterpiece "A Tale of Two Cities". The cities are London and Paris, or maybe metaphorically the old Paris and the new Paris, before and after the French revolution of 1789. It is the story of how the privileges of the wealthy and politically powerful, their pride and sense of entitlement, and not least their abject disgust of the less fortunate, who are unable to lift themselves up from poverty, brought about a revolution and all the horror that followed in its wake. It is a cautionary tale about how ugly, emotional, and violent things can get, if the majority of the people in a country is continuously disregarded and feels neglected by their entitled leadership. Of course, there are no parallels to our modern enlightened democracies, where people choose their leaders themselves. Or are there?

I just came across this documentary involving the statements of some politicians and economists done by Al Jazeera English, that makes an excellent case, that there is a growing disconnect between the politically and economically powerful and the majority of Americans.

Although this report is specifically describing the American situation, it is not an American problem. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening or already as wide as it gets in many countries of this world. I could cite GINI coefficients or top tax rates to make this point, but the sad thing is that we are all already very aware of the inequality in the world.

But there are two very different outlooks on the problem and how to solve it. Some say: "Well, if we could only get the world economy on it's feet again and finally relax those trade rules to get government out of the way and stop pussy-footing around who is really creating value on this planet.", while others say "We are in a desperate situation, where the rich control politics through money. Trickle down economy has been proven wrong, but they try to keep people oblivious. If we could only get the rich to pay their fair share, maybe through a global tax on financial transactions, or there will be hell to pay."

I personally believe in the democratic process of debate and compromise. I also have a high opinion of meritocracy, when it comes to economic issues, but not when it comes to social class. You should not have to earn your right to speak by having enough money, but every voice should be represented independent of its weight in gold. Politicians who do not follow this guideline of balancing the interests of all members of society, irrespective of economic power, but based on their human value as citizens, are making a devil's bargain. They are becoming puppets of interests other than the common good.

I happen to agree with the rating agency Standard & Poors on their assessment of "America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed." I think one way out of this mess is to re-establish reliability and accountability in politics. Not by "brinksmanship", as the Republicans have shown by holding the country's future hostage, but by putting every opinion out there and having an unemotional and reasonable debate that does not negate any of the facts. A compromise is when all sides give a little and everybody albeit grudgingly still supports the final deal. It would definitely make policymaking a lot more predictable and effective! And, hopeless idealist that I am, I think also a little more just...

Open choices

2011-08-02T12:59:00.004+02:00

You are free, but you have to choose something. My mother used to say: "an open oven bakes no bread" -- Paulo Coelho

Sometimes I feel like I don't have a choice. There is no choosing without alternatives. Well, alternative choices are all around us. Life itself is a series of choices: subconscious choices, immediate choices, well-thought-through choices, forced choices, emotional choices, hurried choices, bad choices, good choices. Living is choosing. And one recipe to give ourselves room to make good choices is openness. Openness about the direction a choice might take us in.

I am a social scientist, an intellectual, a people person, a traveler, but I might as well describe myself as a manager, an entrepreneur, an analytic brain, and a good networker. It's about the self-definition, not about the contents or skills of my person. By realizing this, a lot more choices open up to me. I don't have to follow a pre-drawn path that is determined by what I have done in the past. The Self that made those decisions does not exist, because every time a decision was made there was a random collection of (mostly unconscious) decisions about what experiences to pick from my past and what behaviors to nominate as "characteristic" of myself (my self!).
WWID - What Would I Do? in this situation is the question that many people ask themselves to feel consistent in their self-image. But a consistent self-image is a trap. It locks your choices into a cage that becomes harder and harder to break. To minimize the pain and anguish at our limitation, we proceed to rationalize the cage as the real us, our personality, and if we are lucky we can say of ourselves (our selves!) that we are what we have always wanted to be.

But there is so much more out there. Throwing the past overboard can be healthy. It's never too late to start looking again for what you wanna do with your life. Maybe you would love to start a new career, there are usually lots of new places that you would like to see before you die, or you could be looking for a hobby by crowd-sourcing the search.

What helps me are my advisors, the people around me that challenge my arguments for doing the things I do, but never stop me from doing something they did not really expect. Friends and family know me well enough to trust my decisions, once I have made them and still help me while I collect arguments for or against a certain idea. Change is always scary, but with people like this, it is half as bad!

Uncertainty

2011-07-23T12:16:00.005+02:00

The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably deal with. ~Tony Robbins

The search for a job is a difficult phase, especially when you are quite new to it as I am. There are so many variables in this equation of interests between you and your potential employers. You you can never have all the data you want before your decision (although you will surely get it after you have decided).

On the employers' side there are mechanisms that try to filter people:
instruments like formal requirements (resumé, cover letter, correct spelling, good grades), personal tests (assessment centers, interviews), and criteria your character should fit (authenticity, honesty, ability to work in a team, analytical thinking, creative traits, business understanding, etc). The aim of any employer will be to find the most qualified and motivated person to fit the organisation's goals and culture for a productive work together. Only problem with this is that there is no perfect applicant and if there is, no amount of interviewing will ascertain to 100% that this work relationship will work out.

On the candidate's side there is even more uncertainty. It starts with the selection of possible future jobs, let alone employers that you could imagine. The most detailed research cannot rule out the possibility that you missed a very important point about your new job: the work environment feels oppressive, you find it hard to deal with your new tasks, you would rather be working at the other end of the world. Of course, few jobs are perfect, and they are not meant to be fun, but being productive and happy depends to a large extent on you doing something you are good at and feel comfortable doing. And there are only very few, if any, people who always know exactly what that is.

I guess what all this means is that while there is no way to know what is the best path, everybody eventually finds some thing to do with their lives. Where you land is hugely determined by luck and how well you can motivate yourself to take action towards the few things you actually are sure about. This is easier said than done, but it may help to look at the situation from the outside and remind yourself that your uncertainty is not limited to you. After all this is what life is about, we just need to take it one step at a time!

Search for inspiration

2011-06-09T00:08:00.007+02:00

This is Bono giving a commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania. It is customary at universities in the United States to have a notable speaker to celebrate another year of graduates leaving the institution with a degree. I wish this was also a tradition at universities in Germany because it gives graduates like me something they are very much in need of: inspiration.

Now you might say "come on, you just got a degree, you are young and successful, so if you can't come up with brilliant ideas for your life, no one can", but it is not as simple as that.
Yes, it is true, people with masters degrees are certainly less likely to end up unemployed (statistics tell me this, while the clichee still goes about students of humanities driving cabs and selling hot dogs). I acknowledge that I am privileged. I am well-educated, safely funded, and able-bodied.

Nothing can stop people like me. Except for ourselves.

Inspiration is the spark that can make this generation live up to its potential, but it does not grow in an environment of "no, you can't" or of "yes, but". When there is high unemployment we are told to go for security and are discouraged from our dreams because really, what does my generation know about making a career. When the job market is good, we are encouraged to go for the jobs that pay best. Security and money seem like the most obvious categories by which to judge the quality of a job. And it feels limiting. When I turn on the news I listen to politicians naming job creation as their highest priority, as if work was a value in itself. It is not. A healthy, happy, and just global society however is! The shortsighted requirements of creating jobs for our economy to sustain the unsustainable goal of infinite growth are sending a signal that does not lead to the best outcomes.

Everybody has something that inspires them! For me it is the interaction with people, the collaboration to do something good. I also draw energy from things that upset me, from phone companies' bad service, to educational inequality, preventable environmental disasters, global poverty and disease, and the incredibly slow pace of change. If I can harness my passionate instinct to help out with the emergency situation of poverty, environmental change, migration, lack of education in most parts of the world, I am sure to be more productive and more fulfilled in the long run.

The inspiration to help must be steeled against frustration, shielded from cynicism and, very often, from pragmatism. Bono speaks about idealism under attack, and he is right. For years I have learned about the inequalities that our society produces, about the structures that keep the poor in poverty and the uneducated dumb. I know that the time to act has come.

I know that my role in this world is somewhere out there, helping to organize a future that is more just that our past, setting up the structures that will lead to less violence and more education. I have a dream that my children will live in a world that is not shackled by the responsibility for a neglected Global South. In my dream university graduates will not have the odd feeling of choosing between their ideals and a sensible career. This is my mission statement. Feel free to make your own!

What is Netanyahu doing?!

2011-05-22T22:16:00.007+02:00

Recently I have written less about politics. One of the reasons is that when you are going on public record with a personal opinion you better be well-informed and prepared to handle the reactions. Often I feel either not informed enough or not passionate enough about the issues to write about them. Sometimes however, things need to be said, because politics lives from public discourse and I definitely welcome discussions.

What got me upset was an interaction between two nations, the United States and Israel, and their respective leaders, Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu. On May 19th, President Obama held a speech on American foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa. He was gracious, welcoming and thoughtful about the chances and risks facing the countries shaken up by the so-called Arab Spring. This movement for democracy has spread from Tunisia to Egypt and is sparking a lot of resistence from the political establishment, resulting in turmoil and violence especially in Syria, Libya, and Yemen. Obama pledged support for the young democracies without disputing their right to form their own future without US meddling.

However, it was not his proposed policies that sent the news cycles spinning, but the last part of his speech where he focused on the issue of Israel and Palestine. He said "Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist" and also "The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation". If this sounds even-handed and just to you, you are right. It is completely fair and has been the cornerstone of US policy for a very long time. Just like the following bit: "We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states." Like I mentioned this is not outlandish, just reasonable and direct, setting up another round of talks that is ultimately meant to secure Israel's standing in the Middle East while ending the violent and horrific oppression of Palestinians.

Netanyahu's reaction however was something to behold. In a statement he let the world know that he "expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004" and enraged a lot of Americans who found it inappropiate for Netanyahu to reprimand the US president who continues to double over ensuring Israel about his support, for proposing that it make some concessions to a lasting peace itself. By taking this position Bibi continues to alienate more and more people outside (and inside) Israel, a tactically very unwise move. Part of his reasoning for not being able to accept the 1967 borders is that demographic changes have occurred that make those lines indefensible. But what seems more indefensible to me is the fact that population density in Israel, even while it is continuing to expand settlements in occupied territory is at 360 people per square kilometer, while in the Gaza strip 4100 people live in that same space inside borders sealed off by Israeli military.

This conflict has been going on for decades and violence has been committed by people on both sides, and today more than ever before it is inequivocal who is preventing a peaceful and just solution. The mind of Netanyahu is a miracle to me, but I am convinced that he is very wrong and needs to change, if he wants this to end well for himself and his country. I hope he will come to his senses soon, because even though I hope he is wrong these are Netanyahu's own words: We don't have a large margin for error and (...) history will not give the Jewish people another chance.

Smile!

2011-05-15T11:21:00.006+02:00

In keeping with my blog's name and my personal philosophy I would like to suggest you watch 8 minutes of scientific facts that should convince even the most hard-core frowner to smile more often:

Among many people I know it is already common knowledge that smiling is good for you. I have embraced this wisdom long ago and friends sometimes doubt that I am ever not smiling and cheerful. However there are difficult times and sad situations, when I feel my face go a little droopy, tired, or sad. Gladly the people close to me always lend me a smile whenever I run out. So if you are currently in need of inspiration to smile, try these two previously posted videos that always help me: here and here.

And if you think spreading joy and happiness around you is not a sufficient argument to smile, maybe business success will convince you. My recommendation is to re-read Dale Carnegie's long time bestseller "How to Win Friends and Influence People" :)

Justice has been done

2011-05-02T15:33:00.002+02:00

(...or has it?)

So the leader of the world's most feared terrorist organization is dead. His influence was destructive and I am glad he is no longer going to influence people to take up arms for a radical cause. However it is a fact that he has already succeeded in making the world more violent, and as a martyr he might just continue to do so for a while, if somebody does not stop this vicious cycle. There will be others and an idea cannot die like a person.

Put it however you like, I just don't think that the death of a man is a reason to party in the streets. It is eerie to imagine the similarity in feeling between the terrorists after a successful attack and those civilians celebrating the death of their enemy.

Maybe we should take the moment to reflect on some perspectives we are less used to in the west. So here is an article about reactions from parts of the arab world.
And I would like to invite you to something even more interesting than reading about what other people think. Listen to a sociologist for a couple of minutes and let him help you explore an interesting way to think empathetically about other people. His experiment sure had an effect on me, maybe it will on you: Sam Richards' Radical Experiment in Empathy

Hope you are all having a happy and peaceful day out there!

"Go have fun now"

2011-04-21T07:46:00.008+02:00

(thanks to Roy for that advice! Glad to report a successful mission.)

My trip is drawing to a close and I look back on months of traveling and getting to know people in many ways along the road. In Mississippi I talked to a man on a train, who was trying to convince me that the government should never interfere with the economy because (quote) the market always works (end quote).There was Nicolas Cage starring in a brilliant subplot to my travels, where he almost assaulted my host in New Orleans at her workplace and now got arrested in recent days. Hopefully he gets his life in order! I have ridden a bike on Beale Street and across a university campus. Old friends and their families have provided me with food, shelter, dog walks, dance parties, tours to graveyards, and afternoon tea in the sun. My host in Austin showed me a place where he used to float along a river with his buddy on inflatable rafts, drinking beer. I went hiking with an extraordinary new friend, who I hadn't met until we shared the same room for two weeks all through Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. In San Francisco I have connected with some gentle *g* people that I had only known via the internet. A podcast led me to a meditation center, where I got to know a peace activist, who gave me a place to stay. A blog led me to the house of an Iranian journalist, who is everything I had hoped for after having read her blog some years ago: warm, engaged, strong, and loving.

I have slept in tents, motels, on couches, on beds, on the floor, even in the back of my car. When I took along a hitch-hiker in Sonoma County, I was not murdered, and when I was hitch-hiking for a couple of miles in Flagstaff, I got to know a Texan couple, and a guy with a bed in the back of his van. I have not felt unsafe or unwelcome anywhere I went and can truly say that this is a hospitable nation. Certainly I will be back here.

After three months on the road the world has become smaller for me, more beautiful, and more colorful! When the world comes knocking on my door I will be sure to let it in and give it a big hug :)

California, the Golden State

2011-04-11T02:59:00.006+02:00

The last part of my journey is in full swing!

Los Angeles has been different from what I expected. My image was of a spread-out dry city on flat terrain with a cloak of smog that only sometimes allows you to see the Hollywood letters in the distance. Nevertheless after a night on the train my friend and I arrived in a green bustling city of hills and completely different neighborhoods. In a couple of days I discovered the green variety of the Huntington Gardens and Schabarum Park (in West Covina, where our couchsurfer lived), the great architecture and art of the Getty Center high above the city, and the beachside beauty of Santa Monica and a sunset at Venice Beach.

One day was spent at the Universal Studios theme park, which is expensive but also great fun, from highspeed roller-coasters to brilliantly staged scenes straight from the movie Waterworld. We sat in the "soak zone" and left afterwards still dripping and laughing, happy about the warm sun quickly drying our clothes before the next ride.

Since parting ways with my trusty travel friend (Go Robeth!) I have been driving up the coast in my rental car and adventures lined up there as well. In San Luis Obispo I camped out in my car next to the beach and had a surf class with an ex-pro-surfer on Pismo Beach. Surfing is loads of fun and I look at the ocean differently now (tempted to jump in and always looking for the perfect wave)! If I am ever to live near a beach, one of the first things I would buy is a board and a wetsuit!

And now I have finally reached the Bay Area of San Francisco, the final destination of this trip. So far I have already found great friends (like Mary who is contagiously happy and generous in spite of having little herself), I have helped set up a volunteer fair, and gone on a daylong retreat at Insight Meditation Center with Gil Fronsdal. Now I have checked in at a hostel in downtown San Francisco and am ready to discover this beautiful place for the remaining two weeks.

While enjoying all the awesomeness of the last two weeks I have started to look forward to seeing my friends and family again! I hope all of you are well and happy!

Roadtrip

2011-03-30T07:40:00.003+02:00

My roadtrip across the National Parks has ended. Here are my personal top three sights along the trip (because there is no way to recount every single bit of awesome, but I can at least make you want to come here, too *g*):

#3 The Delicate Arch
I could not imagine after countless postcards how this arch was more special than the tens and hundreds of different sized arches in - you guessed it - Arches National Park. But gladly I still went up the trodden path to it, because some things no photo could show me. The way leads over smoothly polished stone surfaces marked only by little "cairns" (towers made from small stones) to a stone bowl as big as a football field and on the edge of it there is a cliff where finally you see the huge arch. True highlight!

#2 Antelope Canyon
Countless calendars have been made with pictures of this canyons colorful wavey-lined sandstone walls. But this place is not only in the top three because it did not disappoint, but of how you get to the canyon. The whole place is owned by the Navajo Indians and a couple of companies run shuttle services to the canyon entrance with convoys of five trucks across a sandy track. The shouting and laughing in the back of the truck as we all realized that our driver was not just avoiding ditches, but actually racing the other drivers and having fun with it, is among the coolest memories from the trip.

#1 The Grand Canyon
Just because :) I saw sunset and sunrise at this place and hiked down it half way. Absolutely magnificent! And on top of being wonderful, the whole organization of tourism is flawless here, so my travel friend and I had no problem finding a place to find everything, camp, hike, shop, and get around. Great experience!

***

Now I have already changed location to California, but that is a story for a whole other post :)

"Unexpectedly detained by the world"

2011-03-25T08:54:00.004+01:00

This is how Neil Gaiman put it in his book Stardust. Traveling has kept me from reporting all my experiences back, but I will do my best to share some of my stories again, while computers get more accessible. Here are the places I have been sleeping in since my last post:

- Greyhound bus station in Houston
The second part of my trip from New Orleans to Austin over night was canceled unexpectedly, so I took out my sleeping bag and got some sleep while waiting for my connection in the morning.

- Austin
Being there during the SXSW festival I missed my brother, who would have been the perfect companion to explore the movies that had their world premiere here. But I was not bored and while people crowded downtown I did sweaty yoga - so good! - and played in the park, both events thanked to awesome guides native to the couchsurfing community :)

- Greyhound bus
A 24-hour bus drive took me to Flagstaff via Dallas, Amarillo, Albuquerque, during which I sat next to an overweight black woman, a chatty ex-convict, and a very small Asian girl, who apparently did not know much English but looked grateful when I offered my towel as a blanket when we all got cold during an overlay in Amarillo.

- Flagstaff and a whole bunch of motels all across 4 states
It was to become the starting point of a round-trip through the four corner states (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico). After meeting up with my travel companion we got ourselves a rental car and hit the road. The following is just a list of places we visited. I know a list does not say much, but my fascination with some of these places will have to find room in another blog post:

- Grand Canyon National Park
- Zion NP
- Bryce Canyon NP
- Antelope Canyon
- Arches NP
- Canyonlands NP
- Mesa Verde NP

I am back in Flagstaff today and will soon be leaving for Nevada and California. There will be new pictures in the album shortly! I hope all of you are doing well! Sunny greetings from the colorful and diverse Colorado Plateau :)

New Orleans

2011-03-06T00:13:00.002+01:00

Oh, New Orleans, how I love you! This charming place that should be a swamp, if it weren't for humans, has so much life in it. Although I have heard a few stories of people being robbed somewhere in the city there hasn't been an instance in which I felt uncomfortable here. Not when I was walking all across town after dark or waiting for a bus in a less busy neighborhood. The warm climate and the mounting party atmosphere during Mardi Gras season definitely helps, too.

The city is quickly getting more crazy. Costumed people walk in the streets and bars are open 24 hours. Unlike in any other city in the US you are allowed to drink alcohol openly in the streets and that is what people are doing. Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras, the carnival days after which begins the period of Lent, will be the culmination of what is already going on in the streets of the French Quarter.

There are daily parades of dancing troupes, big bands, and so-called floats, that are typically huge decorated platforms - drawn by a small tractor - with costumed people throwing gifts down into the crowds at the roadside. There is a whole variety of "krewes", i. e. Mardi Gras associations for the purpose of raising funds among themselves and organizing parades for public entertainment. The number one thing that the krewe-members throw from their floats are (plastic) beads. Those beads are found all over town, around people's necks, in the street, on trees and frequently flying through the air :) The custom is that women flash their breasts for men that give them beads, but while there is some nudity during the parades, I have not seen this happen (yet). I have however collected a huge stack of beads that look pretty, if nothing else :)

So while all this is going on in the city and I have been enjoying it immensely, I needed a break for some days and took a rental car for a short trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It was severely hit by the BP oil spill and the beach front is still flattened and has no buildings. That leaves a nice view for the motels in the second row. Skye told me that many people have received thousands of dollars for missed income from BP in exchange for not suing the company. The gulf coast is also known for its casinos, so I saw it as a nice opportunity to try myself at gambling. The atmosphere is strange in those luxurious halls. Thousands of slot machines will take your money for credits and randomize symbols until you have lost all your credits or took out your wins. The majority of players at the slot machines are middle aged and older women, who sometimes play with huge amounts of credits, looking rather bored while they press the buttons repeatedly. I spent 20 dollars and lost 15 of it over the course of 1.5 hours. I did get the appeal of losing, but I did not understand the addictive effect it obviously has on so many. In any case it was quite an interesting experience.

This is it for now. I will leave you with some new pictures in the album on the top right hand side. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Couchsurfing to the Gulf Coast

2011-02-23T20:11:00.005+01:00

I left Memphis last weekend, and the day before I leave one city I usually check back with all my possible hosts in the city of my destination. But this time, there weren't any hosts available. I must have overestimated the size of Jackson, Mississippi, and their infrastructure when it comes to backpackers, because their website really does a fabulous marketing job. So I asked a friend I had only met at a nice birthday party the night before, and she immediately got on the case and found me the perfect host! My one night in Mississippi was spent with a family, that lives a beautiful suburban life in a peaceful town in the middle of this rural state of alligators and magnolia trees. The son of the family is currently at a German high school, so when I arrived at their home they were all chatting with him on Skype and jaws dropped when they heard us talk in German for a while. So everybody was quite happy and Mississippi left a very positive memory when I moved on to New Orleans the next day.

Now New Orleans, as you should know is sometimes called a European city, because it has quite a bit of French influence and also it gets a certain flair from tourists running all over the place *g*. You will have heard that it has weathered one of the heaviest catastrophies a city can endure when hurricane Katrina came through and devastated large parts of the area when the levies broke. Yet New Orleans or NOLA is also called The Big Easy and its spirit seems unbroken. From the moment I stepped off the train and breathed the warm air and heard marching bands practicing in schools on my way, I felt relaxed. I spent the first night at a huge hostel that was once an orphanage and that still retained some of the strangely creepy atmosphere that long corridors and high ceilings create in those old buildings. I slept in a 20-bed dormitory which I shared with only one other traveller who had a sad personal story and who I wish the best for the future.

On the second day I met up with an old friend I will call Skye. When we first met she moved into my shared house in Spain and the next day we went on a four-day trip of Andalusia. We immediately found our old vibe and had so many stories to share that it became a wonderful reunion. I will stay at her house until after Mardi Gras (March 8) and see how the city grows more and more insane over this biggest carnival the States have to offer. I will post soon about my adventures in this wonderful place, but for now some initial teaser pictures will have to suffice (see the album to the top right).

Have a great week y'all and take it easy :)

Walking in Memphis

2011-02-17T08:24:00.005+01:00

The last weekend Leila and I traveled from Knoxville to Nashville, where we spent a couple of great days with her parents. We went to another beautiful cemetary which is one of the activities that come from hanging out with egyptologists that spend months working on papers about writings on ancient tombs :) Cemetaries have a very peculiar and usually very peaceful atmosphere, especially if they are old. And the cemetaries I have been to on this trip have both been from the mid-nineteenth century. Great places for sunny afternoon walks!

So now, since Monday, I am in Memphis. I am staying with a couchsurfer near the University of Memphis, which is one of the two universities in town. The campus is about 10 kilometers from downtown, so I would be a little cut off from the life of the city, if it it wasn't for my great host who lets me borrow his bike. My face is tan and my hair is all sunny and bushy from the driving wind all day. I went geocaching of course, which led me to great places such as Chickasaw Park which I doubt many tourists ever get to see, because it is a secluded rather rich neighbourhood with a lake in the middle. They even have turtles in their pond that disappear under water when one gets too close. Places like these let you forget that Memphis is one of the cities with the highest murder rates in the US.

Everybody I have talked to has warned me of certain things. Don't ride the Greyhound bus (which I have done twice now, without any problems), stay away from the dangerous areas of town, don't you dare to hitchhike (remember: axe-murderers everywhere) and don't come close to the border with Mexico. The drug cartels sometimes kidnap people like me for ransom. So this fear and fright that is ever present when talking to Americans about my trip has left me wondering. Am I really a target? Is this a dangerous country? I agree that there are guns everywhere and every major city in the world has areas you should not be wandering around in at night, but my experience so far has been extremely positive. It's always better to be on the safe side, so I mind every warning I get, but if every driver on the road was an axe-murderer, where do all the normal people drive?

Anyway :) I have installed an album for all who want some pictures to illustrate my stories here in the upper right corner of this blog. Just click on the picture and you are directly transferred to the album at Picasaweb. It's the easiest way for me to constantly update and share pictures with you, so check back with the album every once in a while for updates.

Have a great week everybody!

Swing and a Sermon

2011-02-07T15:44:00.006+01:00

My days have been incredibly varied. I will pick out two highlights from this past weekend. Saturday evening after watching "Scott Pilgrim vs the world" on DVD (so good! watch it!), Jon, Leila and I went to meet the other swing dancers at a concert. Now when I say we went out to go dancing at a concert don't imagine people bouncing up and down in front of a stage. The place we went to is called "Barley's", a tap hall which has all different kinds of beer, even German ones. It's a huge place and in the middle there is an area for the band and enough room for swing dancers to pull off quite a show. The first band of the evening was "Blair Crimmins and the Hookers", that played awesome bluegrassy, lift-you-off-your-seat-to-dance music, was quite a surprise to a lot of the swing dancers that were gathered there, because they had never heard of it. The second band was local and was founded by a fellow swing dancer back in the day. Today "Christabel and the Jons" have made it onto iTunes. Their also very danceable country bluegrass repertoire was more relaxing after the highspeed ride with Blair Crimmins. BTW, if you have never seen Lindy Hop, you must watch some of this, to give you an idea of the kind of atmosphere the dancers create. We danced and talked from 10 to 2 and had a really great night!

Then yesterday, with slight sleep deprivation, I went to church. Although spirituality is a big topic in my life, I don't feel particularly Christian or as belonging to any other organized religion for that matter. In earlier posts I have discussed some of my views, so suffice it to say that I don't go to church very often. But this time it was quite different, because the advertising for Knoxville's "Knoxlife" church says it is "church for non-church people". Also, it is located in the backroom of my hosts favorite coffee house, which was quite a recommendation. After 20 minutes of Christian rock music (which could have been worse, but will never be my favorite) everybody was free to get coffee and bagels from a buffet. Then the sermon started and Sean, who believes he was told by God to open this church in Knoxville with his wife, surprised me. I had small expectations, but this devout Christian, most of whose beliefs I don't share, got a few points across that I would love to hear from believers of all kind. "You can't make friends with ulterior motifs" was one, and "You can't go out converting people and checking them off your list. That is just weird." was another one. Basically his message was that Christians should first of all be normal people who try to improve their capacity to love other people simply because they are human. Whenever Christianity (or any other religion) helps people to understand that, I am all for it!

I wish all of you a great week!

New friends

2011-01-30T18:12:00.002+01:00

I have been in the US for 5 days and 4 times I have been out in the evening at parties and to eat. I discovered Atlanta for two days and was most impressed by the Martin Luther King Memorial Site. They have a really good mix of media to teach you about the civil rights movement and who MLK was. Although I have been fascinated by Ghandi and Desmond Tutu and have read about them quite a bit, King has so far been kind of a blank slate for me. I basically just knew about the "I have a dream" speech, but after visiting this memorial site I feel much more connected to him. He has become one of my heroes :)

On Friday I came to Knoxville on a Greyhound bus. All Americans I have met have been either generally opposed or very cautious about the idea of me taking the Greyhound. Somehow in their mind it is not quite safe. Well, if you take into consideration that most everybody has a car, this rather cheap way of public transportation is for those who cannot afford a car or got out of jail recently. But it's also for young travellers like me :) And so I soon made friends again. Oby from Asheville used to study creative writing at Columbia University, Michael is a 19-year-old Christian who was quite interested in whichever county I thought was better, Germany or the US. When the conversation became about religion, Oby, always the critic, founded a new religion on the spot and made us all his followers.

In Knoxville I am currently living with Leila, an old friend who used to study in Germany. She is an egyptologist so the revolutionary things going on in Egypt are a big topic. Save the mummies!! She shares a house with another friend and Jacob the cat. I even have my own bedroom. She is a swing dancer and so we went to a party of one swing dancer who is, lo and behold, off to study in Germany for a semester and was celebrating his farewell. I met an interesting American Sign Language teacher from Trinidad and learnt how to say "I am German" and "Cool".

Now I am off to another day of exploring with my Leila. Hope everything is alright wherever you are!

Arrival

2011-01-26T15:41:00.004+01:00

I have landed in Atlanta, both physically and mentally. The journey was ok, with only a slight delay due to de-icing at Munich airport. I watched the Last Airbender movie on the plane and had a good chat with a Turkish father on his way to a poultry trade fair, who was sitting next to me. We arrived well on time.

On the train across town I met two Southerners who had been hosting international students in the past and were very interested to learn about couchsurfing. Also, if I should ever hike the Appalachian trail, I will show up at their Inn in Damascus, Virginia.

Just so you get a feel of the surroundings I tell you about Tyrone, who was on the phone with several girls while I was on the bus. He was 'sweet-talkin'' them into letting him take them out, but unsuccessfully. He did not let it spoil his mood and even showed me a picture of one of his targets, a pretty lady. While talking to the bus driver about where to get off, a woman who had served in the miliary and had once been stationed in Germany joined the conversation and shared some of her German with us. So far, there wasn't a single place where I did not strike up some kind of interesting conversation. And this was only the journey to where I am sitting right now.

After a change of plans yesterday I was taken in by a nice couchsurfer who offered me not only a place for the night, but entertainment at a couchsurfer meeting to fight the jetlag, The motto was a "soup party", so everybody had brought different kinds of soup. "Broccoli, garlic, onion" was one of my favorites, as was "chipotle, quinoa". The crowd was international and interesting. This was much for a first half day, but I wanted to report before it faded in the background of all that is to come! The adventure has begun :)

My new action hero...

2011-01-16T17:23:00.004+01:00

...His Holiness The Dalai Lama :) I really liked this TED talk by Jody Williams, the woman behind the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. She received the Nobel Peace Prize for it and talks about some of the most inspiring people on the world stage right now. Their common theme is taking action. Don't just sit there! Get up and do something, however much time you have. It does not matter, just don't keep on sitting there just watching and moaning about all the suffering in the world (maybe including your own). I am trying to find the best way to make "taking good action" my livelyhood!

Home is wherever I'm with you

2011-01-10T15:13:00.001+01:00

While leaving behind this city, slowly moving back in with my parents, and with my upcoming trip to the United States in mind, I have been thinking about what "home" means to me. For a long time now I have been using that word for both my childhood home and my flat in Augsburg. Of course I am gonna miss this place. It has been my very own shelter and a place of calm and warmth for five years now.
But the feeling it's not just about this place, more about the memories and people that are connected with the time I spent here. In the movie Garden State, Zach Braff talks about family as "a group of people who are missing the same imaginary place". Yes, in this sense, Augsburg has been my home, as there will always be people who will be missing this same imaginary place. The most important friends won't disappear from my life, while some others will go their own ways again, just like I am doing, maybe connecting from time to time somewhere out in the world. And there will always be some true friends, who I will share my life with, and who will find me wherever I go just as I will find them. I wish that all of you have such people that feel like home to you!

Enjoy a beautiful cover version below of this beautiful song called Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros:

How to live an awesome life

2011-01-07T22:37:00.007+01:00

Just watch this poetic, inspiring, funny, touching, and wise TED-talk:

A new day

2010-12-22T16:49:00.007+01:00

ARIES (March 21-April 19): "There's always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in," wrote novelist Graham Greene. I'll add to that: There are at least three moments in adulthood when a new door opens and invites the rest of the future in. Judging by the astrological omens, I'm guessing that one such breakthrough lies ahead for you in 2011. What can you do to expedite and encourage fate's summons? Here's one possibility: Surrender to the naked truth of what you love.

I have completed my recent journey inward. It has been described as a "surgical operation of the mind", ten days in complete silence, meditating and working on my equanimity and awareness. It has added to my clarity of mind and since I came back my work efficiency has improved greatly. If you wanna know more about what I did on this retreat, you can find some information here.

The reorganization of my life is going on steadily and the date of my journey outward in the world is coming closer. I am giving up the room I have been living in for 5 years now. Very soon I will receive my diploma and will start to apply for jobs. I have started saying goodbye to some dear friends that I won't see as much anymore. And I feel like nothing is clear, but all is well.

What should I do with my life II

2010-12-03T12:05:00.006+01:00

"Who doesn't feel fearless at twenty-five?
I wasn't afraid. But that brazenness is usually hiding something. [...] My choices were ruled by that fear, but I never would have called it a fear. I would have advertised it as one of the few things that I knew mattered to me. I would have called it self-knowledge. You want to know where your fears are hiding? Tell me what you know about yourself. Tell me what you can't live without." p.336 in this book

Almost exactly one year ago I wrote in this blog about the very same topic. The big question of what I should do with my life has not been answered, far from it, but I have been working on it a lot. The renewed dynamic is due to the fact that I just graduated from university. I now have the equivalent of a masters degree in Sociology, with minors in Political Science and Applied Linguistics for Spanish. And yes, it feels fantastic :)

But graduation is not just the ultimate goal, which it has been for the last 5 years. I only just begin confronting the fact that it is much more of a beginning than an end. There are some serious, exciting, crucial decisions to be made. My grades are pretty great. My chances at a good job are definitely above average. My life is orderly and controlled and safe. I have a strong supportive net of family and friends. Nothing can go wrong. This is what I know about myself. Now tell me what my biggest fear is.

But it's not just about the scary momentary insecurity in my life. It's about the opportunity of it all. Soon I will go traveling. Both inside myself and outside in the world. I feel the need to challenge myself again. I would like to find new ways to prove myself other than by academic standards. I will force myself to plan a little less, even if it is just temporary. What I hope to accomplish is a new, a better me. If that new me writes a blog, you will read about it here! Love and success to all of you!

There'll be sun sun sun

2010-10-14T23:13:00.003+02:00

Oh, well, in five years time we could be walking round a zoo
With the sun shining down over me and you
And there'll be love in the body's of the elephants too
I'll put my hands over your eyes,
but you'll peek through

And there'll be sun, sun, sun
All over our faces.
And sun, sun, sun
All on our bodies.
There'll be sun, sun, sun
All down my neck.
And sun, sun, sun
So, what the heck.

‘cause i'll be laughing at all your silly little jokes
And we'll be laughing about how we used to smoke
All those stupid little cigarretes and drink stupid wine
‘cause it's what we needed to have a good time

But it was fun, fun, fun
When we were drinking.
It was fun, fun, fun
When we were drunk.
And it was fun, fun, fun
When we were laughing.
It was fun, fun, fun
Oh, it was fun.

Oh, well, i look at you and say: “it's the happiest that i've ever been”
And i'll say: “i no longer feel i have to be james dean”
And you say: “yeah, and i feel pretty happy too,
and i'm always pretty happy when i'm just kicking back with you”

And there'll be love, love, love
All through our body's.
Love, love, love
All through our minds.
And it'd be love, love, love
All over her face.
And love, love, love
All over mine.

And i'll remember all these moments suggesting my head
I'll be thinking about them when im lying in bed.
And i know that immediately they might not even come true,
But in my mind i'm having a pretty good time with you

Five years time
I might not know you
Five years time
We might not speak
And five years time
We might not get along
Five years time
You might just prove me wrong

Oh, there'll be love, love, love
Wherever you go
There'll be love, love, love

Preparation

2010-09-07T22:45:00.003+02:00

ARIES (March 21-April 19): My friend Alana suffered from a mysterious ailment for months. Symptoms included vertigo, stomach pains, and numbness in her legs. After being treated unsuccessfully by six health care practitioners, both mainstream and alternative, she went to see Dr. Ling, a Chinese herbalist recommended by a friend. Ling was a dour woman who made no eye contact. Her office was dingy, cramped, and windowless. Alana felt a bit depressed by the visit. Yet when she took Dr. Ling's herbs, she felt better. In three weeks she was cured. The moral of the story, Aries: The restorative agent you need may not come in the most inviting form.

Three weeks from now, my final exams begin. I have been stringing along a lot of necessary preparations, studying on and off for some time and without great impulse. I know that even without the best preparation I won't fail completely, but I won't be satisfied with the results. Everybody who talks to me these days, please give me a guilty conscience for not studying hard enough. I will need it to make this work! Strange how my motivation works! Obviously what I need is not coming in a very inviting form, but I know I will feel better come December...

Words to live by

2010-08-23T21:27:00.003+02:00

On this day, you read something that moved you and made you realise there were no more fears to fear. No tears to cry. No head to hang in shame. That every time you thought you’d offended someone, it was all just in your head and really, they love you with all their heart and nothing will ever change that. That everyone and everything lives on inside you. That that doesn’t make any of it any less real.

That soft touches will change you and stay with you longer than hard ones.

That being alone means you’re free. That old lovers miss you and new lovers want you and the one you’re with is the one you’re meant to be with. That the tingles running down your arms are angel feathers and they whisper in your ear, constantly, if you choose to hear them. That everything you want to happen, will happen, if you decide you want it enough. That every time you think a sad thought, you can think a happy one instead.

That you control that completely.

That the people who make you laugh are more beautiful than beautiful people. That you laugh more than you cry. That crying is good for you. That the people you hate wish you would stop and you do too.

That your friends are reflections of the best parts of you. That you are more than the sum total of the things you know and how you react to them. That dancing is sometimes more important than listening to the music.

That the most embarrassing, awkward moments of your life are only remembered by you and no one else. That no one judges you when you walk into a room and all they really want to know, is if you’re judging them. That what you make and what you do with your time is more important than you’ll ever fathom and should be treated as such. That the difference between a job and art is passion. That neither defines who you are. That talking to strangers is how you make friends.

That bad days end but a smile can go around the world. That life contradicts itself, constantly. That that’s why it’s worth living.

That the difference between pain and love is time. That love is only as real as you want it to be. That if you feel good, you look good but it doesn’t always work the other way around.

That the sun will rise each day and it’s up to you each day if you match it. That nothing matters up until this point. That what you decide now, in this moment, will change the future. Forever. That rain is beautiful.

And so are you.

(I am very thankful to the poet who created this and gave it to the world through this blog)

From my travels - London

2010-08-16T13:06:00.005+02:00

So the last week was spent in London visiting friends and enjoying a little vacation time away from university. It's been very relaxing and real feel-good experience. My hosts here introduced me to a whole range of vegetarian meat substitutes that are really hard to find in Germany. Combined with the organic vegetables coming to their doorstep every week I was in culinary paradise :) As always the chats with my friend, solving riddles from simple logic to world politics have filled me with renewed motivation for studies and life. Seeing him prepare for a long stay in Africa has made me want to apply for volunteer work in the developing world as well. I know it will happen! Good times!

Apart from this nice home I shared I was also lucky to see the musical "Phantom of the Opera" and a great performance show called "Stomp", where a crew of eight give you a rhythmical massage and make you laugh. If you ever come to London, don't let the opportunity go by and spend at least one evening with the singers, actors and musicians. Always works to make me happy :)

For now it's back to work. Find me in the library, if you need me...

Next stage

2010-08-03T10:06:00.002+02:00

So I handed in my final paper in sociology. Eighty-seven pages filled with insight on how social movements and the new technologies interact and where modern research is still lacking. The result is satisfying, at least in my eyes (advisors take their time). Now I can concentrate on the next stage, the final exams, that will complete my studies. In 3 months time I am graduating from university having reached the equivalent of what would be called a masters degree in the rest of the world.

So thoughts have started about what to do next. The rest of the world is where my attention is directed. I wanna get out there, do things, solve problems, meet interesting people and contribute to projects for the betterment of humanity. A broad vision, and one shared by many. Yet on how to put it into practice? Suggestions and job offers are welcome :)

During a quick brainstorming I can come up with a whole bunch of options. Should I become an interpreter for Portuguese or Spanish and go to Lisbon for a masters program? Would I be happy building houses in Peru or Ecuador for a development project? Maybe some internship at an international organization is more interesting and offers more perspective. Or is academia not so wrong for me after all, like in a doctorate in the United States or here in Germany? And what about that firm I am going to found with a friend? Is it going anywhere?

Quote found at Fanoos.

During these phases of insecurity in the face of life decisions, I try to look back as well as forward. In the past many decisions weren't active decisions at all. Some were made for me, not by anyone else, but simply by the lack of better options. Sometimes my vision changed when I found myself in different circumstances than I had planned. So with the confidence that looking back on today in ten years, I will be happy with my decision, I go ahead and just do the best I can!

How to be alone

2010-08-01T17:26:00.002+02:00

It's been a while since I last posted something on here. There will be an explanation for that in the next post, so this one is reserved for another topic, one very dear to me.
Many people I have met feel the urge to always be among people. As a social person I get this feeling, too. The emptiness inside, the notion of drifting, fear of being abandoned, if one does not live up to the expectations of others to get back to them in emails or phone calls. Yes, I understand, but yet I have trained myself to be alone some times. If you have planned an evening by the lake and all the friends you've invited now have other plans, go anyway. I am happier that way.
So when I found this very original piece of art by Tanya Davis I was moved by the eloquence with which she expresses this way of life. Enjoy in silence and (preferably) alone!

Mental Health Break

2010-05-18T17:48:00.005+02:00

For the last weeks and some more weeks to come, I have been quite busy with my graduation thesis. Days in the library, meeting with the advisor, talking about it with friends, my life has begun to turn its focus on my studies completely. So to prevent burnout I spent this weekend doing Aikido and took an exam for another kind of graduation. I earned my blue belt (2nd kyu) and am allowed to feel a little proud of myself. Everyone needs to experience some success to keep going! So there, while I return to my daily routine I would like to share this absolutely adorable video with you! Enjoy :)

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

This mental health break is sponsored by The Amphibian Avenger. Watch it and be happy!

On connection

2010-05-11T12:59:00.006+02:00

I recently read the book Connected - The surprising power of our social networks by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler. They have, through many years of research come to scientifically explain some of our vague common knowledge about how human networks function. They go so far as to call these networks human superorganisms because of the way they are intradependent and persistent over time.
I am particularly interested in the topic due to my own research and my own hypotheses about social change. One fact stated by Christakis in the 18-minute speech he gave to TED below is intuitively clear to all of us: "Obesity is not a unicentric epidemic. There is not a patient zero of the obesity epidemic, and there was no spread of obesity out from him. It's a multicentric epidemic. Lots of people are doing things at the same time."
I consider this to be a fundamental fact in all kinds of change at a societal level, meaning people living under basically the same living conditions. Humans are have certain choices how they react to their circumstances and the sum of their choices create social change. In the face of political problems that means they can either conform or protest and thus a protest movement is not going to come from one source alone, but from many sources at once which occasionally might join forces.

On social movements

2010-04-22T13:12:00.002+02:00

For my thesis I have been doing reading in social movements and different models of explaining what makes it probable that a common social or political interest transforms into a wave of activity from people with different backgrounds. So to give you a snippet of what I am up to these days, here are some of the ideas I have come across:

Some researchers think it's social structure that has the most influence on whether a movement takes off. Think of a society with a lot of young academic people when a lot of structural change is going on. People moving to the cities, new industries growing and modernizing media can all contribute to the surge of movements because change is 'in the air'.
Then there are constructivists that say it's all about how you frame the situation to help a movement grow. If you find a way to credibly explain to the public that the circumstances they are living in are unjust and inacceptable, that there is a certain reason for it and that you know how it can all be helped, over time you are sure to find followers.
And some say that it's all a matter of how the political opportunities are structured. Different authors lay emphasis on what has the most influence, but overall they consider the political system (democratic, open or closed, pluralistic or not) and how well you are connected to the people in power as crucial factors.

For my paper I am focusing on what the internet has changed or is going to change with respect to how a movement is created. More and more people are informed and connected to the neverending stream of information. I myself feed it with this post. Does it make a real difference, except that some things go faster than before? Is the internet actually furthering democracy? Well, if I had the answers to those questions yet, I would probably not be posting it here first, but I might let you know as soon as I have more insights to offer :)

So I will leave you with your own thoughts and a short and interesting video to illustrate what makes a movement from the most practical perspective :)

Muere lentamente

2010-04-19T00:11:00.004+02:00

Muere Lentamente
Pablo Neruda

Muere lentamente quien se transforma en esclavo del hábito,
repitiendo todos los días los mismos trayectos, quien no cambia de marca,
no arriesga vestir un color nuevo y no le habla a quien no conoce.

Muere lentamente quien evita una pasión,
quien prefiere el negro sobre blanco y los puntos sobre las "íes" a un remolino de emociones, justamente las que rescatan el brillo de los ojos, sonrisas de los bostezos, corazones a los tropiezos y sentimientos.

Muere lentamente quien no voltea la mesa cuando está infeliz en el trabajo,
quien no arriesga lo cierto por lo incierto para ir detrás de un sueño,
quien no se permite por lo menos una vez en la vida, huir de los consejos sensatos.

Muere lentamente quien no viaja,
quien no lee,
quien no oye música,
quien no encuentra gracia en sí mismo.

Muere lentamente quien destruye su amor propio,
quien no se deja ayudar.

Muere lentamente, quien pasa los días quejándose de su mala suerte o de la lluvia incesante.

Muere lentamente, quien abandona un proyecto antes de iniciarlo, no preguntando de un asunto que desconoce o no respondiendo cuando le indagan sobre algo que sabe.

Evitemos la muerte en suaves cuotas, recordando siempre que estar vivo exige un esfuerzo mucho mayor que el simple hecho de respirar.

Solamente la ardiente paciencia hará que conquistemos una espléndida felicidad.

(here an English version, hat tip to Daisy for linking it)

Noch drei Monate

2010-04-17T10:57:00.006+02:00

...Klausur für Klausur ist es immer dasselbe, bis sich dieses Verhalten bei Facharbeitsabgabe wirklich zu einem ernstzunehmenden Problem entwickelt...Die 8 Phasen der Klausur- bzw. Facharbeitsvorbereitung:

1. Die Diesmal-beginne-ich-rechtzeitig-Phase. Am Anfang der Planung sind alle Kollegiaten ziemlich optimistisch. Immerhin besteht die Aussicht, dass mensch wenigstens dieses Mal auf sinnvolle und systematische Weise arbeitet. Obwohl er um keinen Preis der Welt bereit ist gleich an die Arbeit zu gehen, rechnet der Kollegiat in dieser Phase fest damit, dass der Arbeitswahn irgendwann spontan über ihn kommt.
Bald.

2. Die Ich-werde-gleich-was-tun-Phase Der Zeitpunkt für einen wirklich frühzeitigen Beginn ist nun verstrichen. Parallel dazu wird der Druck, anzufangen intensiver. Aber die Deadline ist noch nicht in Sicht. Gleich geht's los.

3. Die Was-soll-ich-nur-tun-wenn-ich-jetzt-nichts-tue-Phase Während die Zeit ungenutzt dahinzieht, hat sich die Frage eines rechtzeitigen Beginns endgültig erledigt. Diese Hoffnung ist dahin - dafür kommen Visionen. Der Kollegiat malt sich aus, wie es wäre, wenn die Facharbeit über Nacht verschoben würde, ohne dass irgendwer gemerkt hätte, dass er schon wieder nicht in die Hufe gekommen ist. Er beruhigt sich mit der Vorstellung, in mörderischen Nachtschichten alles bisher Versäumte nachzuholen - demnächst! Er entwickelt eine komplizierte Ausreden-Logistik.

Trotzdem: Noch könnte er die Facharbeit stressfrei abschließen.

4. Die Ich-tue-jetzt-was-anderes-Phase Kollegiaten beginnen in diesem Stadium mit hektischen Aktivitäten, die alles Mögliche betreffen, nur nicht die Vorbereitung. Sie setzen Alle ihre angesammelten Kräfte daran, den Schreibtisch endlich vollständig Zu säubern. Sie nehmen sich längst abgelegter Arbeiten an. Sie füllen Ihre Zeit mit Dingen, die ihnen wirklich unangenehm sind - bloß, um die Facharbeit zu verdrängen.

5. Die Ich-hab'-auch-ein-Recht-auf-Freizeit-Phase Der Emotionshaushalt des Kollegiaten ist nun äußerst fragil. Einerseits ist es ihm gelungen, sich selbst zu belügen. Andererseits wachsen die Schwierigkeiten bezüglich der Niederschrift mit jeder Stunde. In dieser Phase neigt der Kollegiat zu tollkühnem Eskapismus: Angesichts all der Anforderungen, die an ihn gestellt werden, manifestiert sich nun das Gefühl, mindestens einmal ein Recht auf Freizeit und Vergnügen zu haben. Die Facharbeit, redet er sich ein, ist bloß ein Klacks, wenn er sich vorher erstmals was gönnen kann.

6. Die Es-ist-immer-noch-etwas-Zeit-Phase Obwohl er sich nach diesen Vergnügungen schuldig fühlt, und obwohl ihm Der Boden jetzt jeden Moment unter den Füssen wegzubrechen droht, setzt der Kollegiat immer noch auf Zeit.

Er ist allerdings sicher, dass er Demnächst in einen geradezu tierischen Arbeitsrausch verfallen wird. Jetzt Konzentriert er sich darauf, Zwischenergebnisse vorzutäuschen. "Ja, ja, ich bin mittendrin.." ist in dieser Phase sein Standardsatz.

Nebenfronten werden eröffnet. "Ich bin gerade auf einen interessanten Aspekt gestoßen..", versucht er den Mit-Kollegiaten weiszumachen.

7. Die Mit-mir-stimmt-etwas-nicht-Phase Gleichzeitig plumpst er jetzt in tiefe Depressionen. Die Fachabeitsabgabe ist zum Greifen nahe - aber unser Kollegiat hat so gut wie nichts in der Hand. Selbstvorwürfe und Selbstzweifel holen ihn ein. Er ist überzeugt, dass ihm einfach fehlt, was alle anderen aufweisen können: Disziplin, Organisationstalent, Durchaltevermögen.

8. Der Showdown - Die panische Phase beginnt. Der Druck ist so groß, dass er es nicht mehr aushält, auch nur eine einzige weitere Sekunde auf Kosten der Vorbereitung zu verlieren.

Sämtliche Fremdeinflüsse werden ausgeschaltet. Der Kollegiat wäscht sich nicht mehr, verweigert die Nahrungsaufnahme, meidet die Wirtschaften und unterdrückt den Pinkelzwang. Ohne Wenn und Aber wirft er sich jetzt in die Schlacht. Energiehormone werden in Extradosierungen ausgeschüttet. Die Arbeit geht voran. Die Gewissheit, die Facharbeit doch noch fristgerecht und vollendet abgeben zu können ist da. Die Arbeit ist schwierig und schmerzhaft - dennoch gerät der Kollegiat nun in die euphorische Phase. Es ist genau dieser Rausch, den er eigentlich sucht. Das Gefühl, es gerade noch einmal zu schaffen. Dazu das Bewusstsein, in Besitz von Riesenkräften zu sein: Seht, das Ergebnis ist gar nicht so schlecht!

Erst recht, wenn man bedenkt, dass keine Zeit mehr war.

100th post

2010-04-14T07:43:00.005+02:00

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Photons work hard to get from the heart of the sun to the surface. They can take up to 160,000 years to complete the 400,000+-mile journey. And yet once Earth-bound photons get topside, they travel the 93-million-mile distance to our planet in just over eight minutes. I foresee a metaphorically similar situation unfolding in your life in the coming weeks. A development that has been a long time in the making will accelerate tremendously in its last phase of ripening.

Today my new (thesis themed) lifestyle choices come into effect. I have been travelling and catching my breath before this task ahead and I feel ready to get some structure into my daily life. Today is a day full of energy, people want the best for me and wish me success with what I am doing and where I am going on my journey. I am grateful and will try to remind myself of that every once in a while.

Let me return you some of that positive energy and wish you all the best for my 25th birthday :)

De vuelta

2010-04-02T11:52:00.011+02:00

I am on my way back home. In Lisbon I fell sick one day before I had planned to leave. So I spent the day - instead of sightseeing outside - in bed, or rather between the bathroom and my bed. Lucky guy that I am, I had made friends with a German couple of my age who were well equipped with travel medicine and helped me out when I was feeling the worst. Thanks again Michel and Alex!
Now, few days later I have my old strength back and am enjoying the company of good friends from my time in Spain. My Chinese flat mate from back then cheered me up when the procession of the Semana Santa in Jaén had to be canceled because of the miserable weather and now I am in Ciudad Real.
It's my first time to really get to know La Mancha, land of Don Quijote, where he fought windmills. Yesterday I got a great tour of the nearby National Park "Tablas de Daimiel" by a colleague of my friend here. Our guide was so well informed it was a wonder he had never studied for this, but I guess 49 years living in the area and loving this place more than anything made him the perfect expert to follow.
The last weeks have been so dense with experience that I can't imagine how it all fit into so few days. I feel so fulfilled and contented that I can feel no regret to return home and let it all rest in me and nourish me during the paper writing that lies ahead. Taste for the good life, I can live it no other way :)

O caminho a Lisboa

2010-03-25T20:31:00.004+01:00

Yes, I am in Lisbon :)
Because of my lack of internet access, mobile phone (and utter lack of further motivation to do anything more than the necessary about either of those problems) I have found me a nice hostel for the time of my stay here. It's the Alfama Patio Hostel, a very nice and cosy place near the medieval castle. Tonight a Portuguese girl is cooking for the 15 guests and staff currently staying here and later there will be a "fado tour". I hope to get a good impression of this town by taking some program offers.

The way here was a bit stressful, although teh Portuguese have been helpful on every step of the way. My language skills are obviously fine, because I already made friends with a nice police officer studying in Bragança. We shared a room at the youth hostel and he spoke no other languages. He even offered to help me out should I run into any kind of trouble on my trip.

But the only thing that was a bit troublesome was the weather. First though I quickly visited O Porto and found a youth hostel full of noisy school kids in Coimbra. Coimbra is a university town, but should be called "town university" because the city center is literally the university district and students rule the place, with a party for the "caloiros" (freshmen) in the central park and all.

And last night I stayed at a camp site in Santa Cruz, a really pretty beach near Torres Vedras about an hour from Lisbon. I was pointed to Torres Vedras by my Portuguese teacher and wanted to see the place. I was not steered wrong. For the first time in Portugal, after the short stopovers and the stress, I felt relaxed. I wandered around in town and later on the beach and slept a little on the benches carved in the rocks on the shore. Wind was strong and the sun kept showing and hiding, but I was not worried when I set up my tent. It was only later that night, at half past one, when I was woken because the wind pressed the tent in my face ;-) Gladly there was little rain and I was able to put the car as a windshield. After reassuring myself that I would not be blown away in my sleep, I put in ear plugs again and slep soundly :)

These are my adventures so far. Hope you all are well! Boa noite!

Quick travel update

2010-03-22T13:04:00.004+01:00

I am currently sitting in an internet café in Oviedo and will later travel on to O Porto, Portugal. I spent the last week hiking and camping in the great Picos de Europa National Park with a long time friend who returned today. We had a wonderful time:
- weather of all kinds (rain and strong wind while walking over snow fields covering the path; torrential rain at night; strong spring sun and warm evenings)
- all from no to the greates view of all (dense fog in which we got lost for an hour -fortunately there was a big group nearby which we rescued eventually- and 360º panorama of surrounding mountains)
- a lot of animal sightings (cows ringing bells all night long, sheep and goats, as well as huge birds of prey sitting on rocks and crossing the valley above and below us)

I however have two more weeks of travelling before me. Seeing friends and making new ones. It has all gotten so much more difficult to organize since my phone battery died a sudden death and left me without phone numbers or any means to contact anyone quickly (which also messes up my couchsurfing plans). I also left my laptop at home in an attempt to live less digital for three weeks only to discover again that I depend on it in some respects (no ways of using free wifi at the mall for example).

Well, this is it for now. Life is good and the Iberian Peninsula has me back once more. If I remember my camera next time there will be some fotos :) Have a great week everbody!

Symphony of Science

2010-02-28T19:26:00.003+01:00

I like this initiative to promote science in a musical way a lot. It's creative and quite beautiful! It's also a homage to Carl Sagan who really believed when he said that "if we do not destroy ourselves we will one day venture to the stars". I like the thought and it gives all our human existence such perspective. Let's not destroy ourselves :) I wish everyone a great week!

2010-02-22T12:47:00.001+01:00

Procrastination from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Oh, and this.

Validation

2010-02-16T10:46:00.003+01:00

No need to say anymore here. Just know that I have the happiest of smiles for all you amazing and unique people out there :D
And thanks to the wonderful Kurt Kuenne who made this short film!

Think better of humans!

2010-01-31T18:37:00.005+01:00

My idea of man has always been somewhat more positive than that of the many people I encounter. Most have resigned in the face of seeing business leaders corrupted while politicians are appealing continually to citizens' self interest when talking tax cuts. Even educational institutions promote themselves by bragging about how they give their graduates the best chances to come out ahead of others.

Selfishness seems to lie at the root of human behavior and yet I doubt this seeming no-brainer when I look around at the people in my immediate proximity. My friends and family and also wider social network is based on people helping each other out. There are connections made that often come about in conversations ("you know who could help you with that? My friend X. I'll give you his email" OR "well, you should have talked to me sooner, I have been doing this paper on exactly what you are starting to investigate.").

Sometimes I doubt whether my world is just too secluded and safe to be compared to the world average. There is always a chance you are naive and overly trusting. But then there are scientists that come to my help and I highly recommend you read this text by psychology professor Dacher Keltner. It might just give you back some hope in the human race :) Enjoy The Compassionate Instinct!

Civil Society 2.0

2010-01-29T17:42:00.000+01:00

This short documentary talks about how the big public protest marches and the so called Strike for Education came about. It was the new media combined with spontaneous crowds with a common interest à la flashmob. Being one of many and still having a say is a powerful experience and genuinely democratic, unlike the kind of representative democracy we are finding ourselves governed by in Germany. It has made me think about whether this kind of international protest could have happened in pre-internet times. Is it a question of scale or is there a whole different sort of interaction at work?

***

If you stumble around the internet these days, you come across many stories that fall in the categories "reflection on technological advancement" or "analysis of the impact of social media". And being part of this whole new sphere of human existence has inspired me to research it for my thesis by which I hope to earn my degree as a sociologist.

It's so interesting to me how many people still mostly ignore (as do most conservative politicians) the force that is the interconnectedness and evergrowing communication between individuals. In 10 or 20 years time I expect for the digital divide to close significantly. If we succeed in defending net neutrality against some corporate interests, we will soon feel the power of the opinions of millions of Africans, Asians and South Americans that so far have a lot less voice in the global discussion (much like at the WTO).

So expect to hear more about this part of my life in 2010 :)

Weird or just different?

2010-01-29T17:06:00.003+01:00

Obviously I haven't been very active, blog-wise, in the last few weeks, so I am going to post twice today to make up for it :)

I just saw this great video. It's funny and at the same time makes a very important point which I think is relevant to all aspects of life.

So try out the lesson learned from the clip "The opposite may also be true" and then assess your political, ideological, religious or opinions about the right lifestyle.

If you are like me (and most other people in my experience) you probably think that you are quite right in what you assume about the world. In fact most of your knowledge is never ever questioned. As soon as you have made yourself an opinion, you regard that as the viewpoint from which all other opinions are to be judged.
But what if you're wrong? What if you dismiss a correct or equally (!) correct notion, just because you limited your mind - unconsciously or consciously - to what you hold to be possible.

Personally I take from this a reminder not to be judgemental and act from a position of not wanting to destroy others' opinions. Instead I try questioning all of them, first of all my own. The openness that comes with this approach hopefully makes me a lot less prone to conflict. (And what if the opposite of that is also true?)

A Christmas Message

2009-12-25T12:12:00.004+01:00

These days many people around the world celebrate the 2009th anniversary of the birthday of one of mankinds most well-known personalities in the field of religion: Jesus Christ.

I myself am not the most devout of believers in Christianity, but I definitely enjoy the festivities and the energy people devote to having a harmonic and peaceful time with their family and friends. Not all succeed of course, but the idea is the important point! Some even are more generous and more of us give the gift of kindness than at other times throughout the year.

So when I found this text from Rob Breszny's book it struck a chord with me and I would like to share it with everybody out there, Christian, Muslim or Hindu, Atheist, Agnostic or Eclecticist, Baha'i or Buddhist, Jew or Jain...

Some Christians might be shocked to learn that Jesus Christ is one of the Main High Magicians in the Beauty and Truth Lab's pantheon of deities and avatars.

They may believe that people like us -- Goddess-worshiping tantric Sufi Qabalist pagans who hang around with Zen trickster witches and espouse a socialist libertarian political philosophy -- couldn't possibly have an intimate and vivid relationship with the cosmic hero they claim to own. They act as if they have commandeered the trademark of one of the smartest wild men in history.

But many of us do have an intimate and vivid relationship with Jesus Christ. How could we not? He was a champion of women's rights, an antidote to the established and corrupt political order, and a radical spiritual activist who worked outside religious institutions.

The dude owned nothing and was a passionate advocate for the poor and underprivileged. He was uncompromisingly opposed to violence and war. Besides that, he was a master of love and he devoted his life to serving the Divine Intelligence. He even went so far as to say, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you, and give away all your possessions."

I want to be like Jesus Christ when I grow up!

In the spirit of this idea I would like to wish you all a merry Christmas! Be good to your fellow beings and smile because you are alive :)

What should I do with my life?

2009-11-25T11:30:00.004+01:00

There is this article (thanks Amy!) that has been in my list of "links to check out" for some months. The intriguing title both kept me from deleting it and from reading it just like that, when I had no real attention for it.
Now I found the time to read it in full. The author, Po Bronson, has written a book after interviewing 900 people, and then selecting 70 to analyse deeply how they had made their life choices. According to him, most problems in answering The Question stem from four basic misconceptions (about money, smarts, place, and attitude). He turns the misconceptions into positive assertions and distills some take-away lessons:

MONEY Doesn't Fund Dreams
Shouldn't I make money first -- to fund my dream? The notion that there's an order to your working life is an almost classic assumption: Pay your dues, and then tend to your dream. I expected to find numerous examples of the truth of this path. But I didn't find any.

SMARTS Can't Answer The Question
...the idea that smarts and intensity are the essential building blocks of success and satisfaction is a product of the past decade. A set of twin misconceptions took root during the celebration of risk and speed that was the 90s startup revolution. The first is the idea that a smart, motivated individual with a great idea can accomplish anything. The corollary is that work should be fun, a thrill ride full of constant challenge and change.
[...] What am I good at? is the wrong starting point. People who attempt to deduce an answer usually end up mistaking intensity for passion.

PLACE Defines You
Every industry has a culture. And every culture is driven by a value system.
[...] One of the most common mistakes is not recognizing how these value systems will shape you. People think that they can insulate themselves, that they're different. They're not. The relevant question in looking at a job is not What will I do? but Who will I become? What belief system will you adopt, and what will take on heightened importance in your life?

ATTITUDE Is the Biggest Obstacle
Environment matters, but in the end, when it comes to tackling the question, What should I do with my life? it really is all in your head.
[...] Probably the most debilitating obstacle to taking on The Question is the fear that making a choice is a one-way ride, that starting down a path means closing a door forever.
"Keeping your doors open" is a trap. It's an excuse to stay uninvolved.

As there are some new ideas for the course of my life on the table these days, I am concerned with making good decisions. There is a lot in this article for me and I maybe those words can help me be clearer about my personal answers. So I am asking myself the question of What is the environment I wanna work in? because it will change the way I am in the future. I am asking How important should money be in my choice? because I know that it's not what will ultimately make me happy. I need to be aware of the danger of playing it all out in my head and never trying anything for real. And after all I need to be clear about the fact that nothing I decide today will set me to an irreversible course to the future.

My worries are soothed for now and I can get back to work. Reflection is good, but only if followed by action ;)

Uni Augsburg brennt

2009-11-18T09:05:00.007+01:00

Eine Pressemitteilung zur Besetzung des Hörsaals I an der Uni Augsburg: hier.

Es geht richtig ab in Augsburg. Eher nichtsahnend, was alles kommen würde, bin ich gestern früh zur Demo des Augsburger Bildungsbündnisses gegangen, wo vor allem Schüler und einige engagierte Studenten sich versammelten und anschließend durch die Stadt zogen (anfangs 500, am Ende 1000). Wir kamen an allen Gymnasien vom Peutinger bis zum Holbein vorbei und machten Lärm und einige Schüler sprangen angesichts der abgeschlossenen Türen aus den Fenstern im Erdgeschoss. Ganze Klassen und auch ein Lehrer schlossen sich dem Protest an. Inspirierende Erfahrung! Mein Rucksack war zu schwer, denn mit dem langen Marsch von 4 Stunden hatte ich echt nicht gerechnet, und auch nicht mit der Fahne, die mir ein Freund von den Grünen zum Tragen überreichte ;) Aber der allgemeine Enthusiasmus reichte weit.

Nach Mensaessen gings dann direkt in den Hörsaal I an der Uni, wo gerade die Besetzung begonnen hatte. Die Presse in Augsburg ist mittlerweile voll von Bildern, aber dieser Video-Beitrag von Augsburg TV verdient eure besondere Aufmerksamkeit!

Nach einigen Stunden voller inhaltlicher Diskussionen im Plenum (Demokratie ist alles andere als einfach!) fand ich dann, es sollte eine Gruppe gebildet werden, die die Brainstormingpunkte für die Abstimmung zusammenfasste. Die Gruppe wurde mit Freiwilligen aus dem Plenum gebildet und die Ergebnisse zum Thema Bologna-Prozess und wie wir uns Veränderungen an der Uni vorstellen, wurden danach präsentiert. Eine Delegation wurde auf Betreiben der Fachschaft Sozialwissenschaften ins Rathaus geschickt und konnte bei einem Festakt des Uni-Fördervereins sprechen. Großer Erfolg!

Ich war da aber nicht mehr dabei, denn Entspannung in der Aikidostunde war wichtiger für meine mentale Gesundheit. Zu viel Input und Action muss man eben ausgleichen. Einige haben im Hörsaal übernachtet und jetzt sitze ich wieder hier und bin einfach dabei :) Bin sehr gespannt, was die weiteren Stunden und Tage bringen!

****
For a summary in English: There are currently huge public protests in Germany, Austria and other European countries that aims at reforms in the educational system. There have been demonstrations in more than 50 cities and many students have occupied the biggest auditorium at their respective universities, effectively blocking the usual classes from taking place. (map)

The main subjects of discussion and claims by students involve the rolling back of increasing education fees (they have only been introduced in Germany a few years back, before that, all school and university education was free) and improvements of the implementation of the so-called "Bologna Process" (main points: europe-wide introduction of Bachelor and Master degrees replacing the old established systems of degrees, introduction of a credit point system to create European comparability).

In this context, I spent yesterday walking around the city for 4 hours, making noise and chanting in front of schools with around 1000 fellow students from middle school to university. I had not planned on it and carried a heavy backpack, but the energy was electrifying. After lunch we occupied a big auditorium, formed workgroups for media contact, food and communication among others. I went on to work with a group to create a clear list of claims from a bunch brainstorming points and present it ot the plenum. Needless to say that by the end of the day I was done with the world, but today I am back (some 50 students stayed in the auditorium overnight). Let's see how this continues...

Not exactly myself

2009-10-28T12:05:00.003+01:00

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You may be as flooded with briny emotion as a Pisces on a meandering binge. You might be as embedded in a labyrinth of your own creation as the Geminis who verge on being too clever for their own good. You may be as cagey a listener as a Scorpio who's searching for a hidden vulnerability in an ally. In other words, Aries, you're not exactly yourself. But it's one of those rare times when that's a good thing. Halloween costume suggestion: the opposite of what you think you
are.

****

What I think I am, you ask? Well, there is a lot to that question and I could think of long and detailed answers. Would any of it have to do with reality? I couldn't say, probably not.

Dito!

2009-10-13T14:08:00.001+02:00

Seite 124 - Bedienungsanleitung meines Gehirns

2009-10-09T14:51:00.004+02:00

Dieser Text stammt aus einem Buch des Neurobiologen Gerald Hüther mit dem wundervollen Titel "Bedienungsanleitung für ein menschliches Gehirn":

"...Kinder können einen anderen Menschen so offen, so vorbehaltlos und so um seiner selbst willen lieben. Sie übernehmen deshalb auch die Hoffnungen und die Sprache der Menschen, die sie lieben, am leichtesten. Und manchmal gelingt es auch noch Erwachsenen, einander so vorbehalt- und selbstlos zu begegnen, als wären sie Kinder.
Liebe erzeugt ein Gefühl von Verbundenheit, das über denjenigen hinausreicht, den man liebt. Es ist ein Gefühl, das sich immer weiter ausbreitet, bis es schließlich alles umfasst, was einen selbst und vor allem diejenigen Menschen, die man liebt, in die Welt gebracht hat und in dieser Welt hält.
Wer so vorbehaltlos liebt, fühlt sich mit allem verbunden und dem ist alles wichtig, was ihn umgibt. Er liebt das Leben und freut sich, an der Vielfalt und Buntheit dieser Welt. Er genießt die Schönheit einer Wiese im Morgentau ebenso wie ein Gedicht, in dem sie beschrieben oder ein Lied, in dem sie besungen wird.
Er empfindet eine tiefe Ehrfurcht vor allem, was lebt und Leben hervorbringt, und er ist betroffen, wenn es zugrunde geht.
Er ist neugierig auf das, was es in dieser Welt zu entdecken gibt, aber käme nie auf die Idee, sie aus reiner Wissbegierde zu zerlegen. Er ist dankbar für das, was ihm von der Natur geschenkt wird. Er kann es annehmen, aber er will es nicht besitzen.
Das einzige, was er braucht, sind andere Menschen, mit denen er seine Wahrnehmungen, seine Empfindungen, seine Erfahrungen und sein Wissen teilen kann. Wer sein Gehirn auf diese umfassende Weise nutzen will, muss also lieben lernen."

Newsflash

2009-10-07T10:51:00.004+02:00

Things happening in and around my life right now:

- After the parliamentary elections 10 days ago, politicians in Germany are "coaliding" to form a coalition. Some "big brother" related issues on the agenda could be crucial to the future development of personal freedom in this great nation (just auto-repeating expressions I've heard, that seem to sound good together)

- My Portuguese intensive course is over and I already speak another language. Thanks to an absolutely wonderful teacher and the small group size fast studying progress was a piece of cake for my language trained mind. Yeah, I know, I am just bragging, but seriously: Portugal and Brasil, here I come :)

- Geocaching (here) and Couchsurfing (here) both get better and better the more you get involved in them. And they can be easily combined, as I found out yesterday when I visited the so-called "Devil's Kitchen", a beautiful nature spot and clear water well not far from here. I got to pet a wild boar and found two treasures via GPS-coordinates. All the time I was accompanied by a charming Canadian travelling duo that happened to be around for the Oktoberfest and afterwards wanted some quieter down-time from partying. I think they enjoyed themselves quite a bit and will have great memories of Bavaria!

- I am having interesting conversations about spirituality these days and my belief system is being challenged and nourished by different yet inspiring perspectives on the world. Do you think that there is of benefit to imerse into end-of-the-world-scenarios or are you more adherent to the old school of utopians? What can I learn from that for my daily behavior?
Also, in the light of a recent murder of a courageous life saver by some brutal teens, how do you act in situations you are confronted with aggression? Questions for personal growth... I might lose a word or two about it in my gradauate thesis that's coming up.

May you be happy! Desejo que todos estão felizes :)

With winter coming it feels cosier to be inside with friends

2009-09-19T11:12:00.005+02:00

Now it's not that cold yet in Augsburg, but summer definitely feels like it's over. So while my weeks are pretty busy at the moment I am here today to share some of the things I experienced in the last weeks.

There was this great project by the very talented photographer and great human being Tyler Knott Gregson which I contributed to and which was meant to show the world some love :)

Hello World, I Love You from Tyler Knott Gregson on Vimeo.

The other day I went to a café to chat and study with a close friend. As often with her I learned a lot about myself, which is always a good thing :) We talked about our childhoods, about how we became the way we are. We talked about circles of friends and how we manage our friendships. We also talked about relationships and what our ideal partners are like. So many important things that I cannot go into detail about them right now (maybe some other time), but I will recommend this to you: Just go one of these days and call a friend to spend a relaxed afternoon in some café with them, just chatting about the important things in life :)

Not only free time holds great human episodes but my university life is also full of brilliant people and interesting stuff. I am currently immersed in an intensive Portuguese course of three weeks where Spanish speakers learn all one normally learns in the course of one whole year. So it's not only intensive, but an intense
experience and absolutely inspiring. Language is my thing anyway and here I get it in compact form and enjoyably presented free of charge!! It does not get much better than that for language learners :) The teacher rocks, too.

Oh and there is my buddy Sebastian in Rome who just now started an inofficial riddle group to solve some logical puzzles together, like this easy one here: You have a 3 liter jar and a 5 liter jar. Measure exactly 4 liters. I solved it, go have a try!

For now I will leave you, I want to see some family on this Saturday afternoon! Be happy everybody!

Be a lighthouse!

2009-08-22T21:20:00.002+02:00

via A man called old fashion

If the right was right

2009-08-21T12:59:00.003+02:00

I highly recommend you read THIS ARTICLE. I have little to nothing to add to the point of view as presented by Cynthia Boaz and plenty of my own perceptions of America from the outside point to the same conclusions.

Here are just two central points that are made:

*******
A genuinely Christian lens on international politics would not call for violence against one people by another in the name of God, but would ask that all people recognize that our moral and democratic obligations extend beyond our own borders, and that our political, economic, and spiritual development is deeply interwoven with the corresponding development of others.
*******
Jesus was a socialist. There, I said it. To read the Gospels and come away from them with a picture of Jesus as anything but an advocate of communally-shared resources requires a level of cognitive dissonance that I simply cannot fathom.
*******

Thanks to Leila for passing me this :)

The Manifesto

2009-08-16T08:51:00.002+02:00

We live in urgent times.

We are more connected than ever, but still do not see it.

For many students in school, school is a punishment.

They are forced to be there, and they don’t see the value of being there.

Right now we organize learning around consumption,
where an expert tells a novice what to learn and that novice consumes it.

There’s a big emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge.

We don’t live in a world where one person has the answers anymore.

We live in a world where the questions are so complicated
that you need to have collaboration among many people to learn.

You don’t just interact with the teacher who knows everything
and you have to soak up that information,
but you actually work with a group

students collaborating with each other,
students collaborating with the teacher,
and in the world that they are entering outside

there is a recognition that there is a new worldwide platform
that we are just beginning to sense its potential,

the internet, our relationships with others, the oneness of the world,
and the complex and interrelated nature of the problems that we are facing all around the world

It helps connect people globally

Digital learning represents a new kind of learning
which means that children are both critical consumers and producers of new information.

We think that students have really valuable knowledge to add to the world in terms of solutions

and the students own this knowledge by creating something with it.

Students become more engaged when they are asked to create the content
rather than passively accept it.

Meeting kids where they are,
by getting them to address the questions that they have, that matter to them,
really engaging them, in a way that they can feel a real impact in their life,
a genuine empowering impact,
so they own it both creatively and scientifically and they are sharing it, all the time.

It’s all about themselves becoming broader people, more knowledgeable, more capable,

We’re not just talking about how students learn in the classroom
but how they learn outside the classroom,
how they participate as citizens in the world,
how they interact with one another,
the way they form a sense of their own identity,

And there’s a bigger reason ….
they are helping other people
solve some of the world’s most pressing problems
improve the condition of humanity

We want to save the planet.

For us, it’s not so much about digital learning as it is about learning in general,
out in the real world

And the only way we can do this is if people participate.

Self-government itself depends on participation.

And it’s the only way that people are ever going to be able to get knowledge.

That is the way of the future, there’s no doubt about it.

And moving the discussion from education to learning more broadly,
means that it applies to all of us,
and all of us can bring our unique perspectives.

It is very easy to have a worldwide impact in today’s world,
so what will your impact on the world be?

via MrBurns's Blog and Digital Ethnography
Thanks!

Contrasts

2009-08-04T20:38:00.015+02:00

Be soft.
Do not let the world make you hard.
Do not let the pain make you hate.
Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.

Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree,
you still believe it to be a beautiful place.

When I read the news, there are all kinds of voices. The idealistic ones think about the grand opportunities a situation holds, the realistic ones emphasize the dangers and risks. The optimists choose topics that highlight the fun and hope in a situation, the pessimists turn angry or sarcastic over the daily problems of politics and power.

I myself deeply believe that we all should be realistic idealists and careful optimists :) This would make the world a better place. No one would be called a pollyanna again for limiting themselves to the positive aspects of a situation. And pessimists might cut their criticism to the part that is constructive. Balance is key as in most areas of life, I think.

Although it may seem incoherent, I will include this little wish of loving kindness below, because reading the news today I am just grateful to be alive and well here where I live. I wish everyone everywhere was!

May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings be peaceful.

Picture taken by Tyler Knott Gregson, a gifted photographer with a nice blog.
"Be soft" was taken from quote book.
The last verses are taken from a guided Metta-Meditation by zen teacher Gil Fronsdal.

Of course I'm a vegetarian!

2009-07-28T09:54:00.004+02:00

From time to time people ask me why I am vegetarian. Obviously every vegetarian knows this question and I found myself thinking some time ago that actually the question should be answered by another question: Why do you eat meat?

Most carnivores of course hardly ever thought about their decision in detail because nobody seriously asks them. It's just the normal state of being. It's enough reason to just like meat. Vegetarians on the other hand need to mull over their decision and their reasons will be questioned. Yet maybe meat-eaters should be considering this topic just like they consider not drinking as much pop because they are worried about their figure.

Having said that I will give you my major reason for being a vegetarian. It is more important to me than the concern about ethical treatment of animals and I actually like the taste of meat quite a bit. It is an ecological reason.

When you think about the food chain you find that to produce a certain amount of meat you need to feed the animal with cereals that could also be used for the starving millions in the world. This wheat or soy is produced on huge acres in places where there was rainforest until some years ago which was keeping our climate oxygenized. On the other hand, huge food plants with tens of thousands of cattle emit massive amounts of methane, a very strong greenhouse gas (18% of greenhouse gases attributed to livestock production!).
If you follow the steps further back that lead to this mountain of cereal you have water, and vast amounts of it. Water is the most important resource of the planet and arguably the wars of the 21st century will be about access to clean sources of it. As if that wasn't enough, livestock production takes place in remote Argentina which means that the average meat consumers in Europe and the North America have their steak shipped halfway around the globe. Here is a map of meat consumption from here.

Well, my point is made :) I hope you were open for all this today and will think more consciously about food. If you want data and entertaining talk about how to better eat, just watch this TED video. And if you still would like to know more, watch the founder of treehugger.com, why you should and how you could be a weekday vegetarian (starting minute 9).

Btw: I don't smoke either, but that's a whole different story ;)

Peace - A poem

2009-07-07T14:12:00.004+02:00

Do you think peace requires an end to war
Or tigers eating only vegetables?

Does peace require an absence from your boss, your spouse, yourself?  
Do you think peace will come some other place than here?
Some other time than now? 
In some other heart than yours?  

Peace is this moment without judgement. That is all.
This moment in the heart-space where everything that is, is welcome.

Peace is this moment without thinking that it should be some other way.
That you should feel some other thing.
That your life should unfold according to your plans.

Peace is this moment without judgement.
This moment in the heart-space where everything that is, is welcome.

Namaste

(by Dorothy Hunt)

Represent love

2009-07-01T12:11:00.003+02:00

"Aren't we privileged to live in a time when everything is at stake, and when our efforts make a difference in the eternal contest between the forces of light and shadow, between togetherness and division, between justice and exploitation? Oh, be joyful that you are a warrior in this great time!

"Will we rise to this battle? If so, we cannot lose, for rising up to it is our victory . . . If we represent love in the world, you see, we have already won."

- Doris "Granny D" Haddock from her 93rd birthday speech

A Sea of Green

2009-06-19T20:48:00.006+02:00

I have been reposting and retweeting and sharing links on facebook and through Skype these days. I followed all the news and spent hours reading articles and refreshing my twitter page. I feel involved in this historic event that is the so called Green Revolution of Iran. Although I am usually careful about what political statements I make publicly I think in this case facts are facts. These days I am learning once more how wonderful it is to live in a country that actually allows me to speak my mind whenever and however I choose to.

I feel like a part of this movement not only because I know people there or from there, but because all those individuals' opinions, their wishes and aspirations are resonating enormously with mine. Today more than ever, Iranians and people all over the planet seem so close. The feeling of solidarity is immense among those who share the daily news about this movement. It is so impressive what happens when people are allowed to connect at an individual level as the internet and its tools have made possible.

As some of my friends have been doubtful I hereby tell you this: That this election was fraudulent has been out of the question for some days. The only question for me is whether Ahmadinejad cheated by 10, 30 or even 50 percent. Just look at these graphs by fivethirtyeight.com:

This is a graph of the provinces that Karroubí, the second reformist candidate besides Moussaví had won in 2005

In 2009 the same people in the same provinces voted for Ahmadinejad and less than one percent of them for Karroubí.

Today, Khamenei has threatened his people, who have been peacefully marching in silence for days. He told them basically 'to stop protesting or else'. He justified again what all reasonable people already see has been a wrong step. One twitterer commented: "Khamenei, the election was not fair. Look at faces of mullahs at Friday Prayer, they knew this was a mistake."

My urge to share this with you comes from the deep belief that what is happening in Iran right now is of concern to the whole world. So much depends on whether this ends peacefully and who comes out of this strengthened or weakened. Peace in the Middle East and the whole region is hugely determined by how Iran is governed. And as we have seen in the past with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what happens there can change the balance of the world. Everything is connected.

I am impressed by how this crisis is being handled by most people involved and I am praying for non-violence to persist as it has before. May it lead to a peaceful revolution in this beautiful country for the betterment of humanity. I for my part am hopeful.

If you have 5 minutes more to spend on this, please read what some people in Iran have written and how they describe their situation. It is heart-breaking as well as heart-warming: 'The fear is gone'

Be good everybody, stay safe, and don't lose hope :)

Human beings are members of a whole

2009-06-15T23:58:00.006+02:00

This video with the text below was posted to facebook by the great Iranian music group Kiosk. I would like to express my support by spreading the information that is getting out of Iran, sharing links and pictures as much as I can.

This whole situation is enraging, frustrating and scary. Here is the majority of the Iranian people and the world should react to their call for a working democracy. It is the only way tyranny can be fought, by peaceful protest and the rest of the world looking after those who are entering in peril.

****************

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.

- Saadi

This week Iranians turned out in record numbers not seen since the beginning of the Iranian revolution to change their current President Mahmood Ahmadinejad.

Their willingness to exercise their democratic right was both historic and uncommon in the Middle East. Iranians longed for change the same way people in the United States, and indeed worldwide, longed for a new beginning after the Bush years. They were tired of an increasingly delusional President who has thrown their country into economic turmoil and portrayed their country as a conflict seeking entity in the Middle East.

But today the same Iranian regime that has denied a dialogue with the world, denied human rights, denied democracy, denied the Holocaust, is blatantly denying the will of its people by committing massive election fraud to reelect Mahmood Ahmadinejad, and arresting journalists and opposition leaders in broad daylight.

Accepting this deception will be costly not only for the people of Iran but also for the people of the Middle East, with far reaching consequences worldwide.

As you read these words, the people in Iran have taken to the streets in nationwide protests. Despite brutal government suppression tactics the Iranian people are courageously fighting for their rights. As antiriot police batons crush the bones of demonstrators whose only protest is election fraud, Iranians are screaming for the world to hear them: WE DENOUNCE MAHMOOD AHMADINEJAD!

The people of Iran now ask for your support!

We do not expect you to fight our struggle but to help us fight it. We expect people worldwide to put pressure on their governments and politicians not to accept the legitimacy of the Iranian elections and the fraudulent presidency of Mahmood Ahmadinejad. Democratic societies worldwide must not leave the Iranian people alone now that they have risen to the challenge. Instead they need to align their policies with the will of the Iranian people.

Friends, we ask you not to let 70 million people in Iran be taken hostage. Any government that accepts Mahmood Ahmadinejad as the new president of Iran has betrayed the Iranian people, endangered world peace, and has no sympathy for human pain.

Iranian Artists in Exile

Drop all ugliness

2009-06-14T23:35:00.006+02:00

I long for a man
A blind man
Who would know Braille.
And read through my body
Cover to cover
Chapter to chapter
To discover my literary wit.

Then I would take his hand
Walk arm in arm
Describing the world for him,
Be his eyes,
His cane
And drop all ugliness
Of the world
In my description.

Sara Mohamadi Ardehali, Iranian poet

Weightlessness

2009-06-10T16:21:00.003+02:00

I saw this and smiled :) Feeling a little stiff after training hard in my Aikido class yesterday, I would probably enjoy some weightlessness right now ;-) Have fun!

6 billion others

2009-06-06T08:43:00.004+02:00

Watch HOME! And if you don't have the time right now, at least watch this to get some of the spirit and the mood! Everything on earth is interconnected, I really hope everybody starts to see it soon!

6 billion others
by GoodPlanet

HOME

2009-06-05T22:11:00.008+02:00

Here is the link to a movie I am watching just now. It takes a while to load, but it is worth it because those images deserve HD-quality. The most amazing shots of our beautiful planet from bird's eye view in smooth camera movement. It is like watching a 3D version of "Earth from Above" and actually the author of the book is also the maker of the movie, Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

He shows the viewer with horrific intensity the beauty and force of nature and soon the highlights and horrors of human ingenuity. I am overwhelmed by the hypnotizing images and left breathless by the clear language. Try it! Watch it here: HOME by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

"It's too late to be a pessimist!"

Little thought on the side: How can you not go at least half-vegetarian after this? Because it tastes so good?

Information overflow

2009-05-31T16:54:00.007+02:00

Once again I have been collecting stuff on the internet that I found funny, things that made me thoughtful and in general things that I would like to share. Come with me on a short tour and feel free to comment :) (btw the comic above is purely random *g*) To all images applies "click-to-enlarge".

This picture of worldwide airline connections by Mario Freese has impressed me greatly because I like to be reminded of the busy web that is the earth.

Lately in the cafeteria of my university I was asked once again if I wanted to test a newspaper without any charge for two weeks. I was half way through signing up for it, when I realized that I actually do read three newspapers on the internet per day ^^

This quite intelligent chart shows the respective probability of different consequences of a decision for accepting same sex marriage. It's pretty drastic ;-)

This comic here made me thoughtful about how we see people differently when they are close to us. And it makes me wonder how we would treat others if we felt they were all family and actually taking care of us...

If you did not catch the story in my recommendations box to the right, I suggest you read it here: FBI terrorist interrogator on the uselessness of torture and the efficacy of cookies. I find it a brilliant example of how kindness is a stronger weapon than aggression.

Let me end on a smiling note :) Be happy everybody!

Shadow images

2009-05-22T11:37:00.006+02:00

I really like this picture :) It shows how things are not always what they seem, as obvious as they may be. It made me think of Plato's cave, too. People sitting against a wall seeing only shadows passing and holding them for the only reality there is.
Sometimes I guess we all need to reexamine how we interpret things around us, detach from judgement and see the rabbit! I shall try this today, question myself and be open to alternate interpretations...

On a slightly different note, the change of perspective can also be a disillusioning or hilarious (might call it a bird's eye view *g*) SMBC webcomic and a explosm webcomic

A little update: Peripeteia :)

Unite, don't divide

2009-05-19T10:08:00.004+02:00

I was made aware of this speech held by Barack Obama by openculture.com and I am once more inspired.

Part 2, Part 3

If you remember I just recently posted a call to the Charter for Compassion. Obama obviously has taken that principle to heart and it is the best feeling I have had towards politics to find this powerful person so deeply endowed with a loving understanding of the world.

Now I will study sociological institutionalism some more. Studies can sometimes bore you, but every so often I feel so motivated and in the right place that hopefully one day I will be one of the people that "know what they are doing" ;)
You guessed right, the sun is shining on my balcony. It is a brilliant day! May your day be the same way :)

Global Connection

2009-05-15T10:56:00.004+02:00

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

Ok now, I should be excerpting a book chapter about foreign policy right now, but this here caught my attention immediately. I could not stop watching this stunning and absolutely breathtaking documentary about the ways in which our society is actually changing and what it could become. I think it helps us all to recognize and understand better what we are doing on the internet every day. We have impact: myself writing this, and you reading this, staying with couchsurfers in Morocco and hosting French students, giving and receiving advice on computer forums, voting on political questions in online polls, microlending via kiva.org.........

The economic aspects of this change towards an open source society reminded me strongly of the Cluetrain Manifesto (supplied in many languages), a landmark book that states 95 theses about some things today's companies have to understand about consumers and the market they are acting in by now. You should check it out after watching the video.

I would now just like to give you some quotes from the film. Please invest the hour in watching it, because what is described is absolutely relevant to all of us!

"Every company is gonna be naked. ...We don't have to be ashamed..."

"Let's start being open source right now!"

"I call this Government 2.0."

"This is a powerful force for good."

For more material take a look at the website. Have a wonderful day everybody :)

On Judgement

2009-05-13T09:15:00.007+02:00

Feeling pretty thoughtful these days, in spite of sun and a load of work about interesting sociological (theory of crime) and political (German foreign policy) topics. And one of the questions on my mind is about judgement, as in judging people.

As often said I try to be an open person withholding judgment on situations or people, if I can, so that I can see what's really going on. But sometimes I can't help it, I just speak, act, even hurt. Of course it is not helpful to react to every bad mood, to every bad hair day someone else is having. I know a lot about it, but when emotion is involved other rules apply and the game changes. Those are the moments one should step back and try empathy, and if you still feel justifiable anger, step back one more step and think if expressing this anger is the right course of action.

Funny thing that an all but choleric person like me should worry about getting angry, but I guess "we are only what we hate".
And then, on the other hand I think, other people should be empathetic of me, too. They can see as well as I that I am angry, hurt or just tired. Am I giving enough insight in my mind? I believe we all have the gift of seeing into other people's emotions though most of us do it subconsciously. Having said that probably the only thing to do is being expressive about what one feels without being entirely caught up in it. I will keep on trying...

My horoscope

ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Some people will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon," wrote Alexander Pope. Most of us have been guilty of that sin: jumping to conclusions so quickly that we don't bother to keep listening for the full revelation. My sense is that this behavior has become even more common in recent years because we're inundated by fragments of slapdash information mixed with blips of superficial analysis and echoed hearsay. But please avoid falling prey to the syndrome in the coming week, Aries. More than ever before, you need to gather raw data thoroughly, weigh the evidence with great deliberation, and come to careful understandings.

A game of chess?

2009-05-13T09:00:00.002+02:00

When you have sacrificed your queen you can still keep on playing, but you are left with the stale feeling that you have already lost the game.
(a TV series)

I have won chess games without a queen.
Is it wrong to assume there is more than one game?

On Principles

2009-04-29T19:51:00.002+02:00

I just watched this magnificent interview (in spite of the shouting match) by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show with Cliff May, who is known to defend the use of "methods to make terrorists talk" against the fundamental ideas of the Geneva Convention. The topic came up because of the recent publication of the CIA torture memos in the United States. The discussion now asks if there should be methods of pressuring prisoners into giving information and what that pressure could look like. Get a picture here:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Cliff May Unedited Interview Pt. 1

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

First 100 Days

Part 2, Part 3

Although I fundamentally disagree with Cliff May - having watched quite a bit of the TV series 24 - I think I still get the way of thinking that lies behind his arguments. If in a given situation the safety of a whole city, or the country, or a number of innocent Americans, depended in a TV-like fashion on the piece of information you know this prisoner has, you should be able to do what it takes to get it out of him.
The point where I find this misleading is where reality is not TV-like, because you can never be sure that information you get from torture is worth anything. Going to far to find out later if it was of any use should not be an option in any country.

I would like to quote Jon Stewart with one sentence that I found not only true, but that seems to cut through the whole debate: "Defining where we push the boundaries of torture has nothing to do with the person we have in custody, it has to do with who we are." This sums it up for me. By our principles we define who we are, especially in difficult situations.

Planet of the apes

2009-04-26T22:43:00.003+02:00

I feel too busy to write here, but it's not true. It's all about priorities. I have time because otherwise I would probably spend this half hour reading the news or watching videos on youtube or surfing around facebook. I know a lot of people in my generation do that.

But sometimes we need to ask: Where do we get all the time? Don't we have more important things to do? The answer is "probably", but I would not have known about some of the things that are important to me if it wasn't for the internet. In an information society we clearly are the ones who are figuring out how to use the huge stream of information, how to generate it. And it is getting better!

I am convinced I have learned a lot on the internet, probably more than in a year at the university, just from reading articles and listening to talks on youtube, and also from exchanging ideas with friends and reading their blogs. I am social, not only in the palpable reality surrounding me and have gotten some good advice or inspiration on the web.

So is the time we spend online just procrastination? It probably is of some use, I certainly hope so. And if that is not enough, consider this:

Be happy, my fellow monkeys :)

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T18:23:00.003+02:00

Look at the video again and enjoy Earth Day :)

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. Khalil Gibran

How to build a global community

2009-04-16T18:39:00.006+02:00

A Tolerant Easter For All

2009-04-12T16:43:00.008+02:00

First of all I would like to wish you all Happy Easter! May you spend this spring week surrounded by family and friends. I myself have worked in the garden, painted eggs, had easter breakfast with family and enjoyed spring on the terrace. Always living the good life :)

On a different note Easter is the most important Christian holiday. Given this, of course the topic of religion is on the table and although I rarely write about it, today I would like to say a few words.

While Pope Benedict XVI calls for peace in the Middle East, this news item (unfortunately only available in German), is an article about the Easter sermon by Walter Mixa, a German catholic bishop with a less peaceful message. He has been known for highly conservative ideas and tasteless comparisons. Apparently a politician of the green party once called him a "manic chief fundamentalist". I would like to say that I don't consider myself an atheist, but Mixa's current attack goes against most any world view that does not prominently involve God (especially the Christian one).

Two published quotes from the bishop's sermon really get me upset:

"Where God is negated and fought, man and his dignity will soon enough be negated and disdained, too. A society without God is hell on earth."

"In the last century the godless regimes of National Socialism and Communism with their penal camps, their secret police and their mass murders have proven in a gruesome way the inhumanity of practiced atheism."

To me this is backward thinking and although I won't enter into the atheist/theist discussion I just want to point out that this kind of attack no matter from which side is really hurtful. Of course the picture he is painting is factually untrue but more importantly it is a message of separation. It condemns people for what they believe or don't believe.

I take it a bishop's job is to 'spread the Good News'. What he is actually doing is bringing horrible news to an awful lot of people who will not appreciate the church for it, or for that matter Christianity as a whole. Truely a job badly done! In short: I could not disagree more with the opinion and the way of delivering it.

Now fortunately I don't have to end on this negative news story, but instead I would like to share this with you. A Charter for Compassion that unites rather than separates. Watch the video and be happy :)

Twitter

2009-04-09T15:00:00.004+02:00

I now have twitter. The media have all kinds of conceptions and misconceptions about this new communication tool. It is simple as can be: Write what you are thinking or doing in a public site where people who choose to can read it. Mostly the critics say this is utterly irrelevant, unimportant and random information, so why bother.

But then again for the people, who select a twitter feed, do have some kind of interest in what the person behind it writes. Maybe the person is a friend, a colleague, a news source or a celebrity. To the one who chooses to read it, the information is obviously not irrelevant or they would not read it, right?

After all, twitter is a tool and tools depend on the user to make good use of them. I use it to virally spread information I consider worthwhile and let for example friends and family see, what I am up to. If I think it is superfluous I will leave it :)

Read this and think about this: "The time it takes for an idea to circulate is approaching zero."

Perspectives

2009-04-03T17:17:00.007+02:00

"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume there is no hope, you guarantee there will be no hope."
- Noam Chomsky

Now Germany has me back. My car is broken and needs to be repaired. I have not gotten the job I wanted because I was unreachable while in Morocco and did not tell them beforehand. I need to find a job because travelling is expensive even when you live on a low budget. Still I have not completely thought out my graduation that I want to happen some time soon. I want a mid and longterm perspective!

For now I am planning a new semester. Spring is here and there are already new travels on my schedule. Everybody is writing to me and my friends are eager to see me. Life is in full swing and I will be busy like a bee soon enough. Have I mentioned that the sun is shining? :D

Have a great weekend everybody!

Shukran

2009-03-24T12:31:00.005+01:00

Back from my journey I feel full and happy. I have truly lived these days, enjoying every moment. There was a lot of time to just stare and marvel at the world. Maybe I have even gotten a little wiser by learning more about myself.

I have been friendly to people, even those who apparently wanted just more money. I guess in some situations I was deliberately dumb because I am so trusting toward everyone. But then I think that I got back home safe and the universe has watched out for me. Most people recognize my weakness in my trusty (some say naive) nature, yet I still have not met the person that really wanted me bad. Will I ever?

There really is a difference between the traveller and the tourist. The people in the desert even have a word for the tour tourists, who they call Tamalou (pronounced French, freely translated as: "where does it ache you?").

Our group has not been aching. In fact we took everything that was offered without bothering if the lemonade glass was 'european style clinically clean' or whether the fruits were a little dusty. We slept on thin mattresses and tried to learn arabic wherever we could. We have been called uncomplicated people because it was easy to make us happy. And we were happy, which I suppose is the best gift you can bring if you are a visitor.
The last thing that makes the tourist a traveller is that he is asked to come back anytime to see more. And that is a real treasure.

This alchemist once again has returned to where he started!

People

2009-03-19T15:43:00.006+01:00

Morocco is fascinating. And it seems that I am also interesting for Moroccans. On the 8 hour train ride today from Fez to Marrakech, I had two long conversations with young Moroccans who happened to be in the same train compartment.

They started the conversations, one by handing me a funny sketch of myself and my travel companions that read 'Welcome to Morocco'. He turned out to be a policeman, fighting drugs and practicing Aikido. He was also a big fan of Obama's and had the Yes we can speech on his mobile phone. We talked in English first, switched to Spanish and said goodbye at this internet café in French.

The other conversation equally describes the kind of feeling Morocco gives me. The guy started talking to me because he thought I might want to sleep and he was taking up too much space. From his hobby of breakdancing and music the conversation turned to the Coran. I had my German-Arabic copy with me and after initial hesitation to touch it without washing himself first he showed me some passages in the book he had found important. He was eager to show me and my interest spurned him further. When I asked him to write one Sura in my little book he did so by heart.

Morocco is different from Germany in so many ways, and very different in itself. I feel humbled again by what I don't know. There is so much I still don't understand and want to learn. Inshallah, next semester the Arabic language course will help me get on with my 'studies beside my studies' :) Have a great day everybody!

Marhaba, travellers

2009-03-18T17:54:00.004+01:00

Halfway into my great trip to Spain an Morocco I am happy and relaxed and so in love with travelling :-)

Today it is Fez for me, my friends and random traveller connaissances from Spain and Germany. We have been sleeping on hostel rooftops the last two nights in warm sleeping bags and blankets for 30 Dirham (less than 3 Euros). We have eaten well and are about to head South to Marrakech across the Atlas mountains at the border to the desert. The people and the language are wonderful, interesting. The tourist guides are less unnerving than the last time, when the hasslers almost got to me with their pushing from one shop to another.

When I get a chance I will put some pictures in my album which I have no chance for now.

Hope everybody is happy, wherever you are right now! Your place is as good as any to remember how great a planet this is :-)

On the road again

2009-03-08T19:14:00.002+01:00

I am about to go travelling once more. Excitement is in my heart as I don't know what is waiting for me in the places I am going. Some places are familiar with good friends waiting to welcome me, some are entirely new. I feel happy and grateful to be able to do what I do, to travel and see so many amazing things. And I can't say how much I enjoy to know so many interesting people from so many different places.

Three weeks from now there are gonna be some more items in every category named above ;)

If you don't feel grateful yet, you should watch this VIDEO and if you are as happy a person as I am you should consider this:

"If being crazy means living life as if it matters then I don't care if we're completely insane." (Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road)

Enjoy your week everybody! And remember to smile :)

What if...

2009-03-02T08:36:00.008+01:00

What if you have never tried before?
What if you don't know the steps?

What if it did not work out the last time?
What if you try again?

What if you could hurt yourself?
What if you could hurt someone else?

What if it changes your life?
What if it fails to change you?

What if you change your mind?
What if you don't want anything to change?
What if it does anyway?

What if you decide the wrong way?
What if you never decide?

Life is complicated. Let Woody Allen analyze it :)

To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down...

Driftwood

2009-02-26T20:02:00.013+01:00

These days I listen a lot to a Berkeley social psychology class, which I downloaded for free from here and then here: iTunes. I have started to put recommendations from my google reader to the little gadget you see at the side and hope you enjoy some of the things I don't find the time to blog about, but really liked, without much of a comment.

When I surf the web I usually go about collecting a lot of little bits and pieces everywhere, like meaningful aphorisms, funny pictures with meaning and nice quotes. I am gonna share a pretty random selection with you today, so I hope you enjoy!

Learn from everyone! Follow no one! Watch for patterns! Work like hell!

Moral skill is chipped away by an overreliance on rules that deprives us of the opportunity to improvise and learn from our improvisations. And moral will is undermined by an incessant appeal to incentives that destroy our desire to do the right thing.
Barry Schwartz on TED.com

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Lawrence Lessig

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

And I will leave you with one of my favorites : )

Reflections on Morality

2009-02-20T14:35:00.009+01:00

I am writing an essay for one of my political seminars these days. The title might seem a little cryptic to you: "Legal positivism or natural law - Reflections on legality and legitimacy in the context of South African transitional justice".

I also have been reading two books in the last week, both of them I had actually read before. But it is funny with books. Although the words have remained the same they relate to your life and your experience in such a different way so that how you read them changes completely. Both books talk about love and guilt, about the past and about morality in the face of lies and responsibility.

Suffice it to say that my view of what is to be considered right or wrong has been challenged and mulled over these days. And so the books have hit me with a lot of intensity.
The books are Milan Kundera's "The unbearable lightness of being", which I had totally forgotten until a good friend gave it to me a short while ago, and Bernhard Schlink's "The reader", which is currently in cinemas and aspiring to an academy award.

I would like to give you some quotes that I found relevant when I read them...

He told himself the real question was not: Did they know or not?, but: Is man innocent, because he is ignorant? Is a dunce on the throne free of all responsibilty, just because he is a dunce?
*****
He went about pondering, until he finally reached the conclusion that it was actually normal for him not to know what he wanted.
You can never know what to want, because there is only one life that you can neither compare to former lives nor correct in ones to come.

I am not saying that thinking and deciding have no influence on action. But action does not simply follow what has been thought or decided before. It has its own source and my action is my action in the same independent way that my thinking is my thinking and my deciding is my deciding.
*****
No, I am not talking about order and obedience. The hangman does not follow orders. He does his job, doesn't hate the ones he executes, doesn't take revenge, doesn't kill them because they are in his way or because they threaten or attack him. He is completely indifferent towards them. He is so indifferent that he may just as well kill them as let them stay alive.

Take a moment to think about this,
don't be indifferent to other people,
ask why you are doing what you are doing
and remember that this is the one life that matters!

Take care everybody and have a great weekend :)

Some quotes...

2009-02-11T13:15:00.008+01:00

...worth thinking about! --- Enjoy your week everybody :)

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I'm not frightened by not knowing anything.

Richard Feynman, physicist and nobel laureate (1918-1988)

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Love is everything it's cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more.

Erica Jong, US-American author (*1942)

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There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

Anything but...

2009-02-04T13:08:00.002+01:00

... a lost generation!

How to live

2009-02-01T22:20:00.004+01:00

Today I got an email with this list of ten things that can really make your life happier. I just wish everyone knew that. Don't be grouchy, keep learning, just be grateful for life. Amen to that!

******

1. Throw out nonessential numbers.
This includes age, weight and height.
Let the doctors worry about them.
That is why you pay them.

2. Keep only cheerful friends.
The grouches pull you down.
(Keep this In mind if you are one of those grouches.)

3. Keep learning:
Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever.
Never let the brain get idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud.
Laugh until you gasp for breath.
And if you have a friend who makes you laugh,
spend lots and lots of time with HIM / HER.

6. The tears happen:
Endure, grieve, and move on.
The only person who is with us our entire life, is yourself.
LIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love:
Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.
Your home is your refuge. How about your relationship with God?

8. Cherish your health:
If it is good, preserve it.
If it is unstable, improve it.
If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips.
Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county,
to a foreign country, but *NOT* to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love
that you love them, at every opportunity.

Lie to me

2009-02-01T10:02:00.004+01:00

Yesterday my mother found an article about the world's best lie detector. However it is not a machine, but a human being, Dr. Paul Ekman. A trained psychotherapist and scientist through and through he dedicated himself to the study of human emotions and their manifestation in nonverbal language. Nonverbal language comprises everything from body language, to facial expression and the tone of your voice.

Here you can watch some videos about his work which is fascinating, but also has a scary aspect to it. Yes, at first it seems like a superpower, but the ability to detect any lie, and that is what Ekman claims for himself, has serious moral implications and can definitely change your life forever, not always in a pleasant manner.

You probably don't really wanna know that your best friend hates the present you gave them or that your family is only being polite about the meal you cooked with so much love. And of course knowing about others' feelings does not necessarily render you capable of dealing with that knowledge in the best way possible. You have to be able to distinguish when to ignore a lie, confront the liar or ask diplomatically if there is anything wrong. In some situations your life could depend on telling truth from lie, but in other situations you are just invading someone's privacy. And you need to be conscious of the fact that you may know the emotion, but not the reason for it. Take into consideration that "the average person lies three times per ten minutes of conversation" for totally different reasons.

Take a moment to reflect on that and think about the reasons you have for being less than truthful in your daily life. Let us at least try to lie for the right reasons, if we can't avoid it entirely :)

You never know...

2009-01-28T22:21:00.003+01:00

...what it's good for.

Life is divine

2009-01-23T20:31:00.005+01:00

"'Always be the happiest man on earth, wherever you are and whatever you do.' If you look at it that way, being in prison is actually a rather interesting experience."

I took this quote from a very inspiring article I found after Larry Brilliant mentioned the guy responsible for the quote in a panel discussion.

The person I would like to point your attention to is Robert Muller, former UN Assistant Secretary General and former Chancellor of the University for Peace in Costa Rica (a demilitarized country).
Not only is he my namesake, but he could well be my next big role model for how to see the world and how to act in it. Among his achievements are that China joined the United Nations and the Pope adressed the UN Assembly for the first time. His optimism, as I see it, is unparalleled, and it is so refreshing when you compare his positive approach to today's challenges with the one we are used to. When others say: "We need to develop global consciousness" he says: "We will develop global consciousness".
Please take a moment to read what this man has to say and I will cut my descriptions short :)

"To be unhappy, to be ungrateful, not to feel wonder and appreciation for the incredible gift of life is a most foolish and short-sighted attitude. The toughest prison of all is that which man imposes upon himself."

For more go here

Engaged Filmmaking

2009-01-18T10:48:00.015+01:00

Garbage Dreams A friend recommended this short film to me and I found it fascinating. Imagine how you can be so very passionate about garbage! These people in Kairo, the Zaballeen, are proud of their knowledge to recycle and of their service to the community. They seem like really happy people! They are going to suffer from the profit approach multinational corporations take to the business those people have been in for generations. Instead of thinking of ourselves and our economy as top notch we could choose to learn and ride the wave of development these people are generating...

By-standing: The beginning of an American Lifetime This one hit me especially, because it I think that the pain we suffer too often comes from our own complacency. It comes from our readiness to accept and tolerate the fate of others and our own. It comes from our helplessness while we deem ourselves to be progressive or green or pacifists: Are we not "people who think it's hip to be radical and don't strategize, vote or DO shit beyond talk"?

You see, sometimes I am so impatient. I tell myself to wait for my time to come, because tomorrow, with the right education and at the right age, when people start taking you more seriously, with a university degree and ideas and hopefully a job, THAT will be the time to DO something. What I am doing today, blogging about it, seems so much like just talk, no action. Yet...

... I am working on the building of global consciousness. I am trying to have people look at the problem and I am convinced that my contribution counts, or else I would not do it. I just appeal to all of you out there who read this, grab a shovel and plant a tree, spread happiness in your surrounding and further away, as far as you can reach. Be passionate about your life and know that you are in control, whatever your fears may tell you! I know you can. I know I can. And I will. Have a wonderful week!

A movie review

2009-01-11T13:19:00.008+01:00

A blogger friend recently posted some movies that he liked in 2008. This reminded me of a movie that has touched a nerve with me and I would like to describe it to you, hopefully without spoiling it. I am talking about Vicky Cristina Barcelona, another masterpiece by Woody Allen.

The story is about two American girlfriends who are spending a summer in Barcelona. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is about to get married, Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) just broke up with yet another boyfriend. "The two best friends had been close since college and shared the same tastes and opinions on most matters yet when it came to the subject of love, it would be hard to find two more dissimilar viewpoints."
They meet a painter, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), and later on his ex-wife María Elena (Penélope Cruz). "He had this hot divorce and she tried to kill him." Romance ensues and with it comedy and tragedy.

This study of happiness and love comes round full circle and on the way touches on some of the questions that probably move everybody in the course of their life. Difficult decisions to be made, the choice between passion and reason, the occasional backlapse after you've already decided, not knowing what you want and knowing what you don't want.

Here are some of many memorable quotes from the movie:

"Maria Elena used to say that only unfulfilled love can be romantic."

"I'm sure any dissatisfaction I have is my own problem."

"The dream is exciting."

"...a growing restlessness that she dreaded, but recognized only too well. Suddenly thoughts started taking precedence over feelings. Toughts and questions about life and love."

"I'm too scared."

The movie does not offer solutions, but after watching it I somehow realized that everybody's happiness is their own responsibility and it begins with being happy with what is and stop worrying about what might be. I shall leave it at that and hope all of you have a wonderful week and maybe go see the movie :)

"Leisure" by W. H. Davies

2009-01-06T11:52:00.002+01:00

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

**********

Maybe you like to think about this for a moment, and if you have a little more time to reflect, you may also want to read this. Stop for a minute today and enjoy some of the beauty around you. Have a wonderful day!

Life is in our hands

2009-01-05T15:58:00.007+01:00

Nothing more important at the beginning of a new year than to make one thing perfectly clear: 2009 is ours to shape in a positive way! If we mess up, well, then it will be our problem for next year, and who wants that?! ;)

I just found this on a friend's blog and although I did not quite agree with the message at first I watched the whole two and a half minutes. And YES, what earth has to say is exactly my point.

I feel if we need to worry at all, we should be worried about our own fate, not the planet's. We need to start doing the things that are good for ourselves in the long run.
My suggestion: One less war would spare many lives. It would also mean one less argument against the rotten idea that we just can't live peacefully and have to fight for our lives...NOOO, we need to cooperate for our lives! Trust each other. Man is not only man's biggest enemy, but also man's biggest asset. If everybody on earth could see this truth we would start thinking of each other as partners for our common future. What we need for that is in us, the capacity to trust. Let this be my message for the new year: Give trust freely and be trustworthy yourself, the reward is mutual :)

Frohe Weihnachten!

2008-12-24T12:25:00.003+01:00

I wish you all wonderful holidays full of happiness and serenity! Lots of love from me to wherever you are! Robert

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or to help you figure out who you are or who you want to become.

You never know who these people may be - a roommate, a
neighbor, a professor, a friend, a lover, or even a
complete stranger - but when you lock eyes with them,
you know at that very moment they will affect your
life in some profound way.

Sometimes things happen to you that may seem horrible,
painful, and unfair at first, but in reflection you
find that without overcoming those obstacles you would
have never realized your potential, strength,
willpower, or heart.

Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness,
and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of
your soul. Without these small tests, whatever they
may be, life would be like a smoothly paved straight
flat road to nowhere. It would be safe and
comfortable, but dull and utterly pointless.

The people you meet who affect your life, and the
success and downfalls you experience, help to create
who you are and who you become. Even the bad
experiences can be learned from. In fact, they are
sometimes the most important ones.

If someone loves you, give love back to them in
whatever way you can, not only because they love you,
but because in a way, they are teaching you to love
and how to open your heart and eyes to things.

If someone hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your
heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn
about trust and the importance of being cautious to
whom you open your heart.

Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take
from those moments everything that you possibly can
for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk
to people that you have never talked to before, and
listen to what they have to say.

Let yourself fall in love, break free, and set your
sights high. Hold your head up because you have every
right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and
believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in
yourself, it will be hard for others to believe in
you.

You can make anything you wish of your life. Create
your own life and then go out and live it with
absolutely no regrets.

And if you love someone tell them, for you never know
what tomorrow may have in store.

Learn a lesson in life each day that you live! Today
is the tomorrow you were worried about yesterday. Was
it worth it?

(author unknown)