Doubting the Unbearable Lightness of Being

"Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life."

"Same procedure as every year, James!"

Ok, so it's Christmas soon, fair enough, but can't all those Christmas Fairs leave me alone and not be everywhere, please? You can't help coming across them unless you consciously avoid certain areas which I feel is a clear restriction regarding my right of personality development because I can't go to certain places I wish to visit because then I'd be facing terrible masses of Christmas decoration in superfluous amounts, an abundance of happy looking people squeezing between ugly booths which offer last year's ideas of potential Christmas presents, as if anyone would LOVE this sweet little lamp and completely ADORE these absolutely wonderful trashy tools whose only purpose it is to collect dust and spam various rooms with their existence. And the exaggerated happiness in people's eyes while they have to endure the smell of burnt and fatty sausages, just because they feel it would be right to smile because they know they should be happy, it's Christmas soon and love is all around. Or not. But it should be and society wants you to accept your role of a happy family member, so they all join in to keep up the facade, nobody dares to do anything unconventional. So once again, here we go again, the purpose of giving presents is lost once more when people start stressing themselves about "having to buy" something for their friends and family instead of remembering that you should actually want to give presents. I'm not against the idea of Christmas altogether, for some kids it's pure happiness I'm sure, although I have difficulties seeing any good in overflowing them with presents, it only adds to their natural egoism. Just try to keep up the family mentality throughout the whole year, that would be a huge innovation. Christmas Fairs desperately need some innovation, too.
"Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?"

One word, one truth..

woow, usually I belong to the group of people who can never remember jokes, but this one is hilarious and it's very simple, it even includes the audience:
Visit www.google.com, type in the word "failure" and instead of clicking the usual search-button try the one next to it which says something like "I'm feeling lucky" or whatever, and see what happens.. By the way, it also works with the ordinary search option, just have a look which homepage of about 214,000,000 found google shows you on top! Now abandon your doubts and the little voices saying "don't accept candy from strangers" and believe me and just do it, the result is highly entertaining.
And if you're curious you can find out how on earth a result like that is possible: Ever heard of googlebombing?

Snow welcomes the stranger

It's exactly the way Alexis de Tocqueville described the phenomenon of democracy: The average citizen only notices in subtle everyday-life situations that there's someone high up in control of the citizens' lives, it's enough to awake a certain annoyance emerging from time to time but never strong enough to start a real revolution. The biggest it gets in our time is some random student protest, or maybe even a bigger demonstration against U.S.A.'s war in Iraq but that's as far as it goes. Poor Karl Marx, surely he'd be very sad his prophecy of a world's revolution never came to be realised, on the contrary, our whole society seems to have turned from the proletariat to its own kind of bourgeoisie.
Why do I write about this? While I was cycling back home today I was stopped by a huge police column who trapped me in the middle of the street and didn't allow me to ride on. A moment later I found out why: With noisy hooting another column drove by, in between the police cars and motorbikes there were various of the essential dark Mercedes, probably with lots of highly important people inside, on one car I could see the flag of a country but I didn't recognise which one. At that moment it started to snow very heavily, first time this winter! And me, in the middle of that turmoil, no way to get past the other cars who just kept going because the traffic lights had been turned off, feeling very unimportant and helpless.

Cut up your passport!

By the way, these new biometrical passports freak me out. I read in the newspaper yesterday that many people who needed a new passport were sent away because their photos were inappropriate for the recent pedantic regulations. Besides the fact that apparently the biometrical chips break very easily, what shocked me most was that you have to have a completely neutral facial expression. I can already see an army of millions of completely neutral-, stupid-, brain-washed looking human beings who are registered in a huge data base, like on some bad futuristic movie. I used to be able to watch movies like that, I'm not sure about it anymore, scares the hell out of me. In 2010, I'm gonna be one of very few left with the old version of the passport because I managed to get a new one just in time before the NEW new one would have been obligatory, uuuh yes! I won't be admitted into the U.S. with that one but ah well... I can cope with that, they won't get my finger prints!

Any suggestions?

Amnesty International is a good thing. Even if they can't do as much as they should, at least they can get people to start thinking. Like tonight, there was a professor from another university, he had been invited by my uni's amnesty group, I think, and talked about "the right to immigration". As you can imagine, not many people came in the first place. Those who didn't certainly missed a nice simple experiment. A psychological experiment, feel free to join in, don't worry, it's not going to harm you unless you allow yourself to start reconsidering the ideology you think you were convinced of, regarding the world, regarding immigration. Alright, that's unfair, maybe you belong to the less ignorant people on this planet (wow, we'd be already five, then!).
Imagine for some reason you can't remember if the country you live in belongs to the lucky people who live a sunny life or if your country is part of those who were unlucky to be born on the shadowy side of the world. You only know there are these two parts of the world. Imagine you would be born into any country but you don't know which one and you need to decide BEFORE if you allowed a liberal immigration policy or not.. What would you do..?
Surely, viewed with such impartialness we'd all suddenly be much more immigrant-friendly, wouldn't we? Because we can't choose our place of birth so better get on the safe side then..
Realisation doesn't do much though, the world today is the George-Orwell-style: All people are equal but some are more equal than others.
Surprisingly, the prof spoke out my thoughts which I posted here earlier about countries and political borders.. so I was quite curious if he could help out with some ideas how it could be realised to abandon all borders and passports and stuff but unfortunately-disappointingly rather- he said he only concentrated on the theoretical part of the idea without concerning himself with any practical considerations. How is that possible?! How can you engage yourself so much in such a topic and then not care about figuring out any ideas about how to possibly realise it all? Any suggestions? Besides the fact we should do a lot regarding the unjust distribution of resources to get rid of the reason why people risk their life in order to get a better life in the first place, see Melilla and Ceuta.
Another thought he mentioned: If we declare it illegitimate that people in the former German Democratic Republic were forced to stay behind the wall, then how can we call it legitimate to keep potential immigrants behind their political borders?

The Impossible Amazement of Random Situations

If you're not looking, you will find. The most amazing things happen when we don't wait for them. I admit this is quite a spectacular opening considering the little story I want to tell. Waiting for a friend in a shop today, I overheard a conversation two guys had next to me, one was Asian and he asked the other one what his name was. He answered with a very complicated sounding noise which I guess was his name but I can't remember it, even if I could I think I wouldn't be able to spell it and even if I could I don't think you'd be able to pronounce it if you saw it written. Anyway. The Asian guy asked the other one if he knew the meaning of his name and when he said no, he said this amazing phrase: "If you know the meaning of your name you know yourself better." Maybe it's one of those situations where you have to have been there to understand the feeling of amazement, it was just strange to hear a piece of wisdom misplaced in a random situation. Apparently my name is originally Irish and means "island". I'll leave the interpretation of various possible meanings to those who know me.

Imagine That!

Imagine about 30 people in a room, some sitting at a huge table, everyone cutting up various vegetables, cheese and salads and stuff, some people working on the pastry, rolling it into shape, others putting it on the baking tray and spreading the ingredients on the pastry, others putting the ready pizzas in the oven, while all the time a smart little Italian guy is rushing about all over the place telling people how to cut the vegetables into pieces, helping out with the pastry and generally being everywhere to watch over the pizza making process, then everyone enjoying their meal around the large table, washing up together, walking through fields with the sunset glittering around us, neverending discussions about neverending topics like the relationship between women and men, getting to know various interesting points of view from various fascinating people, looking at the stars, waiting for a shooting star and seeing one.
That's what my little weekend trip with people from university was like. Very amusing people, those students, and I'm a tiny part of that amusement.

The Success of the Unnatural

Ever googled the word "journalist"? You get to see a huge variety of the strangest pictures. But then, as a journalist you have to be strange, flexible and extraordinary in order to be good. Not that I really know what I'm talking about, it's just my impression. My evenings, as my days in general, seem to be immensely filled recently. Tonight I went to a presentation which took place in uni, topic: journalism. I don't intend to become a journalist after uni but I've always found it an interesting thing to do (as do millions of others..). After tonight's lecture I'm again convinced that too many people rush for work on the employment market, there's just not enough for everyone. Maybe we should reconsider the idea of giving a defined income to all citizens and only let those work who want to.. but that's another story and a huge discussion topic. The 3 journalists who were there this evening all agreed on one thing: It's a requirement that you are able to work under pressure of time. A thing I find highly unnatural.. The feeling of stress is a defence reaction of the body, telling you to stop or at least to slow down. So, that leads me to the conclusion that all journalists are morbid creatures, I always knew it! Just look at this:

The excentric flashback

Flashbacks. Of course we, being conscious of historical events in the past, like flashbacks very much. 16 years ago the wall fell, I think we all remember that by now. But what about the news 43 years ago? Or 23? I picked a random number, like 50, and there you go, regard it either as a piece of useless information or add it to your notional drawer of things to remember:
9th November 1955:
1) There were fierce protests of customers against the planned rise of milk prices. So the government (in Bonn at that time) decided not to raise the prices. But to satisfy the demands of the farmers it was agreed upon a subsidization of 43 million DM monthly from 1956. Wow, the folk 50 years ago had some influence!
2) The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe decided that the 75 000 Austrians living in Germany who acquired the German nationality when Austria became part of Germany in 1938, should now lose their German citizenship with the sovereignity of the Republic of Austria. Hm, 1955, that's quite late for Austria to become a sovereign state. Anyway, their 20 cent coins show the castle called Belvedere where the contract of sovereignity was signed.. how sweet, I always wondered what that building was about.

Where's the world going?

Been trying to be a good student of Politcal Science yesterday. I went to a voluntary sort of lecture which took place in the evening and there were 5 people who felt they wanted to tell the audience something about where, in their opinion, Europe was going at the moment or in the future rather.. So, where is it going then? Apparently straight into a deep crisis, the problem of identity, to be precise. Of course, that's no news really but, for example, the integration problems in Paris' suburbs existed long before they became well-known through the news of recent riots. So now the EU has been enlarged by 10 new members and countries like Rumania, Bulgaria and Turkey are knocking on heaven's eeeh Europe's door, Europeans start thinking about the question what exactly they want Europe to be. Some consider political aspects, some prefer financial facts and others philosophise about morality, religion, ethical values. "Does Turkey belong into a Union of only Christian countries?" Why do people keep going on about that? How many people in the EU seriously regard religion as an important part of their life? Religion is fading away, besides it's a personal thing and it should be left out of politics. If mixed with politics religion only ever becomes an excuse for wars.
Anyway, these 5 people who talked about that topic yesterday were so uninteresting that I can't even be bothered to introduce them. I'll skip that part and start with my criticism straight away.. Basically, they've lost all dreams, all the dreams they started with when the EU was created and now none of the former idealism is left. Regarding that, they did talk quite a lot. I reckon as a politician you only succeed if you talk others to the ground and remain the last one standing. Europe is being talked to pieces while the countries have not managed to find a common ground for their ideas. I think the real question is: where's the world going? Because what matters to Europe is a matter of the whole world, after all, borders are lines on the map, and countries' names are only different sounds..

Plans for the future

We definately believe things far too easily. We're always ready to believe everything as long as the "fact" is well established in our near environment and none of the people we trust expresses any doubts.
I've always believed in the literal meaning of these annoying things called motion detectors which for example switch on a light by itself as soon as I pass, making me feel watched and leaving me with the frustrating thought that some little man-made electronic device is able to detect me walking past it while various people never notice me walking past them. Anyway, apparently the motion detector doesn't "notice" my movements but the warmth of my body which is measured by an infra-red detector! So, does that mean if you roll something like a rubber ball through the motion detector's area then it won't react and set off the alarm? Wow, so if thieves wore some highly modern suit which doesn't give off any of their body heat then they could break in anywhere.. brilliant, in my next life I'm gonna be a rubber ball..! I'd do almost anything to outsmart technology.

You never know who's birthday it might be today..

A huge amount of immensely colourful tiny pieces of pictures put together to create a whole new world- that can only be the art of James Rizzi!
Who on Earth is James Rizzi? I didn't know until I found out it's his birthday today and he's indeed well worth knowing, I guess I've seen his pictures before but never knew the artist behind these colourful explosions. He's a New Yorker and apparently he had a very happy childhood, judging not only from his pictures but quoting from his website: "The subject matter of Rizzi's work is the celebration of his happy childhood in New York." If I look at those birds I believe it instantly..
If you want to know how he creates pictures like this
just have a look at the "Process".
He must be such an optimist, everyone in his pictures seems to be smiling with some part of the body, even the fish. I guess if you're able to express such a whirlwind of happiness through your art and share it with other people, then you must be a true magician because you're making them smile, something which has become quite hard to achieve by now.
Picasso, I think, once said: "It's so difficult to become a child again once you've grown up."

Muscle Museum

Things worth remembering about today:
Surrounding myself with Placebo's music in this morning's hectic trains on my way to uni, the intensity of the sound shutting out everything around me, floating along the platform with people staring at me because they saw me as being in a state of trance.
Thinking about the strange feeling of seeing familiar faces next to me, trying to imagine how I ever used to live without them being there.
Getting really self-absorbed with uni-life and perceiving the world outside as lots of moving shadows while the prof tries to define the word "problem", like we needed someone to tell us its meaning.
Falling in love with a song called Muscle Museum by a band called Muse and end up buying the whole album because it's simply music of the heart.
The enlightment that the replacement of a sick-green carpet cannot replace the sick-feeling itself but with the right people walking over it who cares anyway?
Someone complimenting my character after only having seen and spoken to me for five minutes, but apparently people like to believe they have a fabulous skill for judging other people and putting them into drawers. It's just that some people find little holes in the walls of the drawers and secretly climb on to other levels.

Break away the bricks of the wall

Actually, I don't mind work. It fills your daily life with a purpose and helps you to pretend you're here on Earth to do good, it also helps you to stay aware of your existence, otherwise you simply float through the fog of hours and seconds of each day. So really, work is so useful, I haven't even mentioned the positive effect it can have on your brain cells.. Unless work gets too much and threatens to overflow your life, like it does at the moment. So many words want to be read, so many theories to be understood, and so much statistics to attend to. I always imagine these grey little guys up there to happily jump up and down as soon as the work rushes in to stimulate the brain cells, causing them to start interacting with each other. "Interaction", that's what my sociology prof was talking about today. Apparently microsociology describes the interaction of human beings within society. How does anyone get the strange idea of describing the wonderful exchange of words and gestures, the sharing of thoughts, the silence of looking into each others eyes with this simple and sober word of "interactions"? Maybe decades of theory (yes the prof does look rather old) make you build up a wall, seperating you from reality and if you're unlucky there's nobody to help you climb back over the wall or break away some of the bricks.