I Surrender (The Official Moving Announcement)

You know what?
That's it. I'm done. I can't keep on writing double posts and moving entries and comments forever, so please...

The design needs some serious and urgent improving, but all 2004 posts (though not all comments) and all of this month's posts are already there, and I can't see why you shouldn't be there as well.

There would be http://herebesubtlety.com and that's also the link you should use when you update your blogroll or links. (Given that you link to me, which honestly... why shouldn't you?)

So, if you would like to leave me a kind comment, do it here.
It's a work in progress, but I'm spending all my evenings working as fast as I can and I wouldn't exactly mind a little patting my back from time to time.

I won't update this site anymore or at least I won't promise I will. But I hope I will see you at Here Be Subtlety.

Season Finale Anticipation Part I - The Aftermath

I didn’t shout, but I do have teary eyes still and am wishing it would be September already.

Honestly, I think Rob Thomas just attempted to kill me. Geez.

Now, when exactly can I buy the DVDs?

Season Finale Anticipation Part I

I made myself a gigantic sandwich. Now I'm going to pour a big glass of Orangina and then head to the couch and watch the season finale of Veronica Mars.

I guess that in about 45 minutes I will be shouting at my television with teary eyes and wishing it was September already. I'm torturing myself with TV shows. Another proof that something with me isn't quite normal.

That's How Much I Love You

So, If you were wondering, I am indeed moving my blog.
I registered a new domain. The name will be secret until I have set up everything nicely .
Then I uploaded all the Wordpress files and now I'm moving all my stuff over there.

Yeah.

It was supposed to be an easy routine, but somehow it didn't really work and I couldn't just transfer my entries from Blogger to Wordpress. So now, I'm doing it all by myself. Entry by entry. Carefully paying attention to every damn unimportant detail (in other words: timestamps).

I'm also moving all my comments via copy and paste and I don't even want to think about how insane that is.

But that's how much I love you. You and your comments.

...and my blog.

Unconscious Mutterings - Paul Simon Strikes Twice

1. Android - Robot
   
2. Revenge - Vengeance
   
3. Knight - in Shining Armor
   
4. Stranded - in a Limousine
   
5. Weakness - Don't let them blind you
   
6. Greed - Seven
   
7. Walter - Where is Waldo? (Do you know the books? And aren't they great?)
   
8. Dense - Thick
   
9. Sheep - Sleep (rhymes and makes sense!)
   
10. Propane - Yeah, whatever
    

Again, you can take part and have a lot of fun... just click here.

Throwing Money Out The Window (Not Literally And Not Really)

What made me order FIVE books today? Five! As in.. you know, FIVE!

On the other side I can only read so fast, so it just means that I might not need to order books any time soon (meaning: the next three or four weeks).

Just so you can share my anticipation of the next amazon packages to come, here's what I ordered today (in one of the moments when I definitely wasn't thinking clearly):

Father Frank by Paul Burke (because we saw it in a bookshop and the synapsis on the back sounded just great)
Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton (because volume 11 of the series is on my reasing list and somehow I have to read all the other books before)
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
Saul and Patsy by Charles Baxter
Pompeii by Robert Harris
The last three are all on my reading list.

At the moment I'm still reading 'Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Atwood. It's very strange and somehow frightening. I can't believe I haven't read anything written by her before (anything mostly referring to 'A Handmaid's Tale'). It's never too late, though.

Sunday Random Thoughts

Today I'm strangely obsessed with my hair. I think it's because it looked so perfect today that I just can't get over it. I am one of those 'I have no control over my hair' people which isn't usually so bad because the worst that can happen is that my hair looks boring instead of great, but sometimes I wish I knew the trick some people seem to know and just be able to do something different with my hair every day.

And yes, I watch too much TV and somehow I still believe that those people in my TV did whatever they did by themselves and not had it done by some hair stylist each and every morning. So, why can't I?

Maybe that was also the reason that today I stood marvelling at that specially for brunette shampoo which I absolutely need to own, but (what did I expect?) costs 8 Euro a bottle. Yeah, right. But the commercials are so great...

And yes, I firmly believe in commercials. I also believe that you should reward good commercials and punish bad ones. That's why stopped buying that one yoghurt I really liked because I just couldn't go on buying a product when they hired (meaning: paid) some celebrity I hated to appear in the commercials. I haven't bought anything I knew I wouldn't like just because the commercial was great yet, but I thought about it and I just might do it someday. I decided that if I can be manipulated by the media I'd just as well surrender voluntarily. My understanding of dignity in a really strange world.

Which reminds me of the vegetarian thing I was wondering about for some time. See, we were at this 'Reformhaus' several times (sue me, but I don't know the English word for that and I am too tired to look it up) and they had all this vegetarian food that was pretty much meat-substitude. The thing that bugs me is that it says so. The actual slogan on the box was 'Just like meat'.
Now, I have never been a vegetarian and I think I would make a really bad one, but what I don't get about this is the following: If I decide to live without meat for reasons of health and/or respect for animals (I like the second reason a lot better and must honestly say that it is the only reason that makes sense to me, despite allergies)... so if I decide that I want to do without, why would I want to eat something that isn't meat but tastes just like it. Isn't that just a little but hypocritical?
Maybe I'm too cruel on vegetarians, but isn't the idea (or at least part of it) the act of foregoing, and doesn't eating some fake meat somehow contradict that idea?*

And now for something completely different, the fun fact of the day.
I noticed that I can wear pink. I look great in pink. Isn't that just awesomely scary?
It's also strange that it took me 24 years to discover that pink is one of the colors I look really good in, but then again I mixed red, pink and purple clothes when I was like five. In other words: I wasn't (and am still not) exactly a fashion expert.
I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that I'm a halfway snowwhite type. Halfway, because my hair is not black, but brown and my skin is not white-palish but more rosy-palish (and sometimes you-look-sick-palish), but all in all I'm close. So I already know that I red and black looks good on me and now I notice pink is great as well.

Which basically means that I've been wearing all the wrong colors for the last 24 years and need to clean out my wardrobe and get new clothes.
Out goes the money. Well, it always does, so that's not really news.

Now, that I've emptied my brain I'll make it a clear cut and just go to bed.
Good night. Me, I'll have one.


*Please notice that I am in awe of people that can truly live vegetarian, because I could never be so disciplined and I adore that. But as far as I know the vegetarians I know don't buy fake meat products. Tofu, maybe, but no fake 'tastes-just-like' meat.

Thinking About Moving

I have been thinking about moving my blog every now and then during the past few months. The most important reason why I would want to move is that I'd like to work with a system that's more flexible than blogger. I also would like to be able to include categories for my posts and a few things more I can't do with blogger.

I now might be close to actually 'doing' it. Since I have to get a little more into designing with CSS for work anyway I thought that it might also be the time to play around with my blog and make it just as fantastic (at least concerning the design) as all the other blogs I see out there.

So, does anyone have any advice for me about where to move (I'm flirting with WordPress right now) and how to do it right? I don't want to lose any of my posts and I would also hate to lose my comments (I'd rather retype then by hand), yeah, that's the scary part of moving my blog. Plainly spoken: I'd hate to fuck it up.
Any advice is welcomed here.

Also, I am going to register a new domain for that matter. I haven't thought about a name yet, so if you have a creative burst and know just the right name for my blog, feel free to tell me.

I'd love to hear your ideas!

More Fun Facts About Me

I just realized that I am not a chooser. I don't like to choose.
I'd rather have someone else do the choosing and then say 'no'.

Yeah, when I said that I wasn't complicated? There are always exceptions to the rule.

Commercial Break

Okay, I'm just watching 'About A Boy' and I was thinking...

If I wasn't married already to a cute German boy I would absolutely go for a British guy. I am thinking Hugh Grant or Robbie Williams or Alan Rickman (okay, Alan might be a little too old, but he could read me the white pages and I'd be in heaven).

See, I am not even that picky.

You Know He Loves You When...

He comes home and brings you this:


Just because he thinks you need a new one. Which I did, but I thought in terms of soon as in June.

So this one (see exhibit B below) can go away. Forever.


My life is literally brighter now.

If I Could Take Part I Would Be A Happier Person

So I just discovered this CD-mix swapping thing, because srah takes part and posted her tracklist and just when I decided that I would love to take part I read that for the moment it's limited to people living in the US or in Canada.

What? I make great mixes! I would love to get some! And are you aware that the postal fees here are much higher for oversea shipping that they are over there.

But still I thought that there might be people reading my blog AND living in the US or Canada AND wanting to take part in such a thing, so I decided that even though this experience is not yet for me, I might at least link to it on my blog. Somehow I think I can at least do that.

Check it out and maybe you think it could be fun, too.

Is Dr. Phil Around?

I really need to have this thing checked out.
I just had a wild coughing fit under the shower and I can still feel it trying to start again and it's not funny.
I have the doctor's appointment on June, 2nd and they're going to ultrasound my thyroid gland. How fantastically weird is that? I believe that after that there's not much they can check out.
I've had my lungs x-rayed and a doctor shove a tube through my nose into my esophagus (try to avoid that if you can, because it's just as icky as it sounds) and nobody found anything. I'm counting on my thyroid gland now. As strange as it may sound, I just want to know that something is wrong with them, because then I would be able to do something against it. Right now I'm just having coughing fits and I have no clue where they come from. I really need some part of my body to point the finger.

'So it is you have been bugging me for the last three days, huh? Had your fun for a long time, didn't you? Well, it's over now, honey, that much I can tell ya. O-vah. For good.'


PS: I had to look up all the medical terms. Although I am smart I'm not a genius. Or a doctor. Or both. The German terms are Schilddrüse and Speiseröhre. Cute, huh?

Jamie Gets Interviewed Part II

Srah asked:
1. What's your favorite food to make? To eat?
2. What would be your ideal job, and why?
3. Tell us about your worst travelling experience.
4. What do you like best about yourself? (Feel free to make a long, train of thought list)
5. Tell us about something you bought and later regretted.

1. To make... well, I usually like to try out new things, which is why I subscribed to a cooking magazine and eagerly await it each month. (And once again I'd like to stress that I am not kidding.)
I love to make cakes, because it's just a whole lot of fun. But I don't bake a cake too often because I don't know who would eat it if I did.
I make a mean pasta salad as well. Anyone care for the recipe?
To eat... that really depends. I love sushi, that's for sure, so that'd maybe be it. I also like fried noodles with vegetables and chicken and the pasta salad I mentioned before. I especially like food that I can play with.

2. If I only knew. At the moment I am content where I am, working as a software engineer with additional foreign languages involved tasks. I sometimes dream of being a teacher, but I'm not exactly sure if that would be the perfect job for me. If money wasn't the problem I'd just say working as a dolphin trainer. Just because I think that would be really cool. Or with seals.

3. That would most likely be the school trip to Italy. Mostly because I felt out of place most of the time. It wasn't really bad, but it wasn't good either and I really can't remember any really bad trips I made. I am also too influenced by holidays in France to find Italy especially interesting. Go France.

4. I always sound arrogant when I say something like this, but I really like that I am smart. Yeah, I know. But on the other side I think I can say that without feeling too bad.
But I also like that I am not complicated and hardly ever moody. You usually have to fuck up big style to get me annoyed and you on my shit list. (I think it's fair to mention that there are few totally random little things that will get you on my shit list immediately. And most times I don't even know what they are until it has already happened.) But in general I am very easy to get along with.
I try to not to make this list too long, but I would also like to add that I like my very good taste in music. I am just really happy to have that.

5. When I was cover-CD-shopping in New York (meaning I bought CDs only because of their cover) I made one bad choice and ended up with a Hard-Rock-Death-Metal-Whatever CD I never listened to. I wonder where it is now. But I think considering the loads of CDs I bought there it could have been worse.
There are also some clothes (most bought on flea markets or at H&M) that I hardly ever wore. But I can also say that now I hardly ever buy something I won't wear. It seems that I'm still able to learn from my mistakes. I made it a rule not to buy anything at H&M, because this is where most of the never-wore-again clothes came from.


Since this is a meme, you can take part in this wonderful fun, too. If you're interested in being interviewed by me, here are the rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. They will be different questions than the ones above.
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Adding To The Housewife Image

I think I may take courses to learn how to sew.
Then I'll be able to sew my own clothes or at least repair the torn ones I've got and woould like to wear again one day.

And then I will start to learn how to make quilts.

The thing is, I'm really not kidding.

Where Did My Week Go?

No, seriously, where? Because I don't remember having one.
I think I must have some spare time because I remember being amazed by the two latest episodes of Veronica Mars and finishing Emma and the third volume of the Dark Tower series, but apart from that... there's not much.

I also remember going to see my aunt with my parents and my husband and I do remember spending the whole Sunday afternoon outside and enjoying the first of May being a perfect summer day, but I also think that's where I left my weekend.

I also remember ideas for writing for the blog, but as it is they all went with my week. Or they're just spending some time outside because the weather outside? Is amazing.

That much said... what the hell am I doing inside? Because as some of you might remember, we do indeed have a balcony. One that's filling up with herbs for that matter and will be very soon filling up with colorful flowers.

Yes, that's my reason for again not saying anything amazingly interesting. The weather here has turned from constant raining to no-jacket-required and bright sun shining.

And we do have a balcony.
Facing south.