Montag, November 29, 2010

Good things list IX

Okay, before it is forgotten again, here is my list for the past two weeks:

*Going dancing with my boyfriend, plus my sister and her boyfriend.
*Then going to a concert with them the next day, kebap eating and lots of weird conversations
*We finally made it to Vienna! I delivered books. I got some books. We went shopping. We visited the Christmas market. We ate hot dogs and sweet pretzels and marvelled at the decorations in the trees.
*Lovely food on Sunday.
*A long night of sleep from Saturday to Sunday.
*A PhD party on Friday. Lightsabres were involved. Wheee!
*Snow! And I can still go by bike, because streets are wet, but not icy.
*Deep red nailpolish the colour of sparkly cranberry sauce.
*Spicy tea.
*Two diploma celebrations in one day, filled with coffee, prosecco, wine, song and dance. (Not kidding here.)
*New boots! I finally found some that fit.
*Two 2-day workweeks coming - this one and the next.
*My mum ordering us a big box of cider
*My parents giving us a box of yummy apple juice, directly from the farmer...we've been buying there for years, it's so good.
*A relaxing bath while listening to Thursday night TV - hilarious.
*Finding time to read, and read lots.
*Innocent smoothies now being available in 750ml tetra paks and not just the teeny-tiny bottles anymore. How I longed for that day! And not it is here...and they are so good, and much cheaper if bought by the pak, and I love love love them.
* A professor promising to bring chocolate to class next week. No matter how bizarre the class sometimes gets, nothing beats chocolate gifts.
*Speaking of that class - squid pictures. ;)

Considering I was ill and had miserable migraines before that, I guess that list ain't half bad. ;)

One more, yeah

(I started this on Friday, and am finishing it on Monday, so the "getting up" etc stuff refers to Friday.)

I haven't posted anything for so long, I now need three posts in a row. Well, whatever.
A friend of mine posted this meme, then another did, so I think I might also give it ago.

1. What time did you get up this morning?
10 past 8 - my boyfriend woke me at 6.45 or something, but I ignored that fact as best as I could. Worked out marvellously.

2. How do you like your steak?
Organic and medium. And eaten very rarely so it feels really special.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. Becuase as I just mentioned previously, I love birds.

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Don't watch much TV, and much less TV shows. Of all time? Probably the original Start Trek when I was age 6-8. Now? House is sometimes quite nice, when I catch it. Scrubs as well. Family Guy...I've watched too much of that by now. Does Galileo count? Avatar-The Last Airbender was nice, but I'm not sure whether it's running somewhere right now. Meh. Really not much of a TV show watcher.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Here in Graz, and...Irish west coast or San Francisco or London or Adelaide, though I haven't visited the last one yet. I guess what I really need is my personal bat cave and my personal crazy modes of transportation, so that I have a base plus a huge range of action. ;)

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Mhh, bread with that chocolate-apple spread we bought in a tiny store in Italy on our last holiday.

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
I don't know. Something freshly made, with a good amount of veggies? That applies to a lot of things, just not typical Austrian cuisine, now, does it. :P

8. What foods do you dislike?
A lot less than I did during various stages of my life. Hmmm...chestnuts, maybe? I adore the smell, and sometimes I eat them, but I do not really love them. Yeah, that's the worst I can currently say about any kind of food. Success!

9. Favorite Place to eat?
Die Scherbe in Graz, for casual eating, San Pietro, also Graz, for fancy eating, and Wagamama (I've only been in London) for my dream food place of all time - honestly, a day before I left London, I stuffed myself so full of their food, even the serving staff was amazed. I need to go back. Need to. It's been five years! *cries*

10. Favorite dressing?
Kernöl - I cannot argue with what my friends are saying. I also like joghurt-based dressings though.

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
A totally rad deep blue bike which is waiting for a name to match its brilliance.

12. What are your favorite clothes?
Hmmm, wide-legged jeans, a tee layered over a cami, a cardi over that, some kind of scarf. Skip the tee or cami if it's warm. The cardi only if it's really hot. Anyway, layers. Yumm.
Also, long flowy dresses which need nothing else to look great. Apparently, there is a hidden rule that I can only ever own one of that kind. *shrugs*

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
San Francisco, so Kris can show me all the wonderful SF places she discovered. London, Ireland, Australia. Bali. Honestly, give me a plane ticket anywhere and I'll go. ;)

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
It's always either completely empty or completely full because I tend to drain glasses in one fell swoop. ;)
I guess this would be one of the philosophical questions where a free refill would fit in perfectly, as an idea.

15. Where would you want to retire?
Ummm. Somewhere warm, I suppose. Or Ireland. But who knows? Maybe, once I get to that age, we can go to the moon? I'd like that. (And yeah, I know that's not exactly the warmest place available.)

16. Favorite time of day?
Hmmm. On summer days, around 3.30pm. And then again around 6pm. In winter...hmm, late mornings.

17. Where were you born?
Graz. I'm still here. Boring? I think not.

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Figure skating. *crazy laugh*

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?
20. Person you expect to tag you back first?
21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
I do not like questions like these...meta-questions, in questionnaires like this, are boring. And silly. And stupid.

22. Bird watcher?
Not dedicated, with looking glasses and notebooks etc, but, as should be apparent by now, I love birds, so when I see some, I watch them. I even do not shoo the pidgeons from our balcony all the time, because, yeah, sometimes, I like to watch them. They are insane, but I still watch them.

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Haha. Night. Though I would prefer to be more balanced. Mornings are nice, too.

24. Do you have any pets?
Some spiders and other assorted insects, who choose to live in our apartment. Crazy pidgeons on the balcony.
So no, not really. I borrow from friends.

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share?
Snow!

26. What did you want to be when you were little?
Like my mum. *more crazy laughing* Okay, a pharmacist, I suppose. My parents thought I would be a goldsmith. I built lots of interesting Lego houses with neat floor plans (architect?).
I am now none of these things. At least I still write stories with zombies in them. :D

27. What is your best childhood memory?
Hmmm. The general carefreeness. Lots of good things going on back then. :)

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
Both. I can have neither, but I love cuddling/adoring other people's.

30. Always wear your seat belt?
Sure.

31. Been in a car accident?
Yep, once while on my bike (nothing happened), and once shortly after receiving my driver's licence (did some minor damage to the car in front of me). That's it.

32. Any pet peeves?
Some. People shouting. If someone starts a sentence and takes ages to finish it. Car drivers who don't look out for bikes. Really slow drivers. People in my building holding up the elevator while chatting. Some others as well, but I don't want to dwell on this too long.

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings?
Something with salami and lots of cheese, I guess.

34. Favorite Flower?
Orchids are nice. So are dandelions. So is lilac. So are sunflowers. So is wisteria. So is lavender. So are daffodils. So are...

35. Favorite ice cream?
It used to be apple-cinnamon. These days, I'm not sure. One of the best ice creams I ever had was in Rome, I think it was cinnamon-honey. But there's so many lovely ones! I switch between them all the time.

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
I go to the old McD most of the time the rare times I do eat fast food, but I also love Subway - the sandwiches are lovely. Other than that? Not much choice around here.

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test?
Not at all. I guess all the panic and drama and whatnot during the learning process must have been worth something.

38. From whom did you get your last email?
Nanowrimo.

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
Amazon/Waterstones. And there are several stores on Etsy that would do the same to me.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?
Buy huge cheese hot dogs for me and my boyfriend at the Vienna Christmas market last Saturday, because I was so happy about everything working out so well that day. Plus the crazy happy dance I did after I delivered the books. Heh.

41. Like your job?
Most of the time.

42. Broccoli?
Cauliflower?
(And yes to both.)

43. What was your favorite vacation?
They were all quite nice, except the one to the USA, where all sorts of things went wrong wrong wrong.
I suppose the one to Ireland, the one to Southern England, and last year's expedition to Italy rank quite highly.

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?
My boyfriend. Hot dogs last Saturday; as for real dinner - Eckstein two weeks ago. Both yummy.


45. What are you listening to right now?
My colleague talking on the phone.

46. What is your color?
Black, blue and purple.
Whenever I wear teal, my mother and my boyfriend say (and have said) that this is my colour. If, by public agreement, I do have one, I suppose it is that. *shrugs* (I do like it, too.)


47. How many tattoos do you have?
None yet. Maybe one day. I'm thinking about several possibilities. During my latest Zelda craze, I thought a Triforce on the back of my hand would be great. ;)

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz?
None. I never liked playing tag.

49. What time did you finish this quiz?
12:18

50. Coffee Drinker?
Sometimes, but while I enjoy it, I tend to suffer for it in the evening.

Freitag, November 26, 2010

Help me name my bike

I've been looking for a name for my bike for ages. Not just for the current one, but for the one before that as well. I never had any good ideas. I called the previous one "Laguna" for a while, because it was blue, but it didn't really fit. I tried to call my current one "Ai-Khanoum" ("moon woman" in Uzbek), a term I wrote down in an exhibition and have been longing to use for something, but it's also not quite the real thing. I'll have to use that phrase for something else...
Anyway. I was reminded yesterday that a friend of mine is calling her bike Epona, which is pure genius (at least to me). Riding home later, I thought about names along those lines, and finally came up with some ideas:

*Highwind 7 - Highwind because of the FF airships, and 7, because Cid Highwind in FF7 has got to be the best FF airship pilot ever, right after Setzer from FF6. Also, 7 is one of my favourite numbers.
*Empyrea - I'm currently playing Dragon Quest 8, and one of the most beautiful things in this game, one which I have just come across, is the Godbird Empyrea. She can travel between worlds, she teaches you how to fly, and of course she is beautiful. ;) I really love birds, although hardly anyone knows this about me. Well, now you do. 
*Nautilus - Hmm, maybe. I just came up with this one. Would be fitting, I guess.
*Other FF airship names: Dreadnought (evil :P), Enterprise (lol), Nautilus, Invincible, Falcon, Lunar Whale (another favourite, oh my, the fun that was FF4 :D), Blackjack, Shera, Ragnarok, Hilda Garde, Prima Vista, Red Rose, Fahrenheit (I didn't even remember the name of the FF10 ship... :P), Celsius, Strahl. Oh dear. What a crazy list of names.

Funny, I thought more FF airships were called Highwind, but it's only the one in FF7. What an impression that must have made on me. I need to listen to "Sending a dream into the universe" right away...

So, I think I prefer the two top options. Now, tell me what you think. Also, have any other ideas? My bike is deep blue, so "King of Red Lions" is NOT working. Just thought I'd mention it.
 ;)

Good news everyone!

(Or just good stuff in general.)

1. It is snowing. I declared a few days ago we would most likely only get snow by January. Not so. November 26 it is!

2. A friend of mine coined the term "Nochvember" ('noch' is the German word for 'still', it still being some time before Christmas madness really starts). I currently have slight troubles not saying/spelling it like this all the time.

3. I missed last weeks Good Things List, but this only means the next one will be a wonderful double-issue dose of happiness.

4. You know that work is a nice place when you stay 20minutes longer, already in your coat, chatting with your colleagues about fun stuff from knitting to meditation to music to snow to Bookcrossing. It is rare that this happens, but I love it when it does.

5. I'm currently listening to Zoe Keating. Don't know who she is? Well, I haven't yet let you know my decision concerning the October and November CDs.
October became Elvis Costello&the Attractions' "The best of the first 10 years", where I discovered that all the songs I so far knew from Mr. Costello were the darker ones, and somehow, the album is much more happy rock'n'roll (if that's what it is, I am not well versed in music categories) than I had anticipated. Anyway, nice.
And November then became the option I had spontaneously forgotten about when I put the question to you...namely, cello artist Zoe Keating. Apocalyptica being one my favourites for ages, I guess it should come as no surprise that I love cello music. It runs in the family. It even runs in the not-quite family (ie my boyfriend). Even my most depressed anime hero ever (Shinji Ikari) plays cello. *shrugs*
Therefore, I will not heartily recommend you visit her homepage and listen to some of the tracks you can stream from there and enjoy yourself. Maybe buy her EP (it's just 4$). Or just listen. No matter what, I swear it will make you happier. :)

6. Lindt now has caramel&fleur de sel chocolate. Finally! Thanks Lindt! It's rare that I envy the USA something, but reading all about caramel and salt pralines etc etc for the past few years, and not finding anything like this over here...well. I hope this stays in their programme.

7. And, yes, I almost forgot this - last night I was taking a bath, and while I was happily soaking away, I heard a TV commercial saying that innocent smoothies were now available in the large packs as well (and not just the teeny tiny bottles). I think my boyfriend must have really wondered what I was suddenly so excited about, because I started laughing madly, and shouting "Oooooh yes! Finally! Yeeehaw!" and other such stuff.
Innocent smoothies saved my life during my stay in London, and they are amongs my fondest food memories, right next to Pret sandwiches and the wicked marshmallow hot chocolate they sold right in front of the library (quite devious of them, yes, but I loved it).

Mittwoch, November 17, 2010

Nano - Halfway Update

Hey everyone...

Let me tell you, this is not what I expected this Nano to be like. I wrote much the first day, quite okay the next few. Then I was already behind by day 4. Then two people close to me told me that maybe I should focus a little more on work and my PhD instead of going crazy again and writing until 4am and all that stuff that I usually do every November. I defended myself and said something about me not doing any proper writing all the rest of the year and whatnot, and that this was my time, and...
And then I wrote nothing for almost a week. Not a word. And not much in the days immediately before that break. And then, yesterday, I was, what, around 17000 words behind wordcount at halfway point, (ie I should have had 25k, and I had 8408...hahaha).
But today I decided that I really felt shitty about not writing. I felt hollow and sad and like it didn't make any sense. This was not the November feeling I was used to. Novembers should rightfully be filled with a crazy sense of purpose. Nevermind the 'crazy' part. That's what it is partly about. Though 'purpose' does also sound nice, doesn't it?
So I just wrote 4000 words, and tomorrow there will be more.
I cannot not write, now, can I?

Montag, November 15, 2010

Good things list VIII

Some time soon, I will post something else besides these lists again. ;)

*Last Monday was a great day at work, because I had a lot of easily manageable tasks to do, which could all be finished on the day. Very satisfactory.
*Finished another scarf. One more item to cross off my to-do-list. Yay!
*Seems I was quite lucky in both the family and Bookcrossing secret santa draw. :)
*Some great talks this weekend with my boyfriend.
*Going out for drinks on Saturday quite spontaneously.
*Tasty tasty dinner Sunday evening courtesy of my boyfriend's parents, who gave us their voucher for this really nice restaurant that I'd only ever had coffee at before...mhhh.
*Celebrating a friend's birthday, and her being all happy and excited both because I made it to the party, and about the gift I had chosen (so nice when it works out with people you haven't know for very long)
*And said party being fun, filled with good food and lovely people
*Sunshine, so much more sunshine than there was in October - at least that's what it feels like.
*Foggy night streets - yep, I like them just as much as the sunshine. They are the best thing about November weather.
*There's some fun social outings already planned for the next few weeks.

It could probably be longer...but what really made this week for me were Saturday and Sunday evening. Progress. :)

Dienstag, November 09, 2010

Good Things VII

I'm really late this time...

*My boyfriend's back, and I mean really back. Not just from the business trip.
*I sucessfully finished my fast, and it was a great experience.
*Nano was off to a good start.
*Sushi two evenings in a row. Yumm.
*'Sofa day' on Friday, just eating delivious food, watching great movies, chatting, playing some videogames side by side, relaxing.
*Only one day at work, yay!
*Good chats with friends.
*Cinema - despite all I could say about the storytelling, 'Legend of the Guardians' was as beautiful as expected from the trailer, and that is, in some way, all I really wanted.
*Finished one more scarf, and am close to finishing another. Also, knit a hat in two days, which I wear all the time now.
*Lovely things in the mail.
*More nice autumn walks.
*Cleaning up, which means a better looking apartment, finally.
*This blanket in progress...based on a drawing by M.C. Escher.

Have a great week everyone!

Dienstag, November 02, 2010

Need a little more weird in your life?

We may have just the products you need.
Check these out:

Hyperbole and a Half's "Shower Products for Men", now animated

Alan Moore's "The march of the sinister ducks" (no kidding)

Bauhaus' "Who killed Mr. Moonlight" (which I will count in, since I find it incredibly weird that I'm only listening to this now, and have not done so, say, 20 years ago)

Enjoy!