Go Green Poster

I made this (shot and concept) for a Go Green Posters contest at Worth1000. I thought it would be an appropriate way to wrap up the Flora and Fauna September, which has been enjoyable for me – and I hope, also for you.

Stay tuned for the next project.

Sonnet on Gnocchi

Shall I compare thee to a potatoe dumpling?
Thou art more dignified and smooth!
Rough graters grind the spuds so darling
And fine farina will be made to soothe

My ailing tongue. Oh masterpiece
Of culinary art and skill!
And with a spicy sauce of cheese,
I can see paradise uphill!

Albeit I know, you have to bear
The boiling orcus in the pot
Until, at least, you take me there
Mouth-watering, delicious, hot.

So long as I in gourmet haven dwell,
So long you bind me with your sapid spell.

—

Oh, and in case you wonder why this sounds familiar… click to read the original

Here is the original:

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft’ is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d:

But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare

Tomorrow’s word: corroborate

Is Tinky Winky, the purple teletubby, indeed day?

My answer is: I sure hope so.

The discussion goes back to 1997, where CNN first reported that Tinky Winky might be gay. He is purple. He wears a triangle (gay pride symbol). He speaks with a male voice. He has a red handbag.

Well, Erik has a red handbag himself, and it not gay, so why should Tinky Winky be? It’s quite simple: Because he should be! It’s more than fair to have a homosexual teletubby. I mean, that’s one of the few things that would actually make them likeable.

The topic was brought up by a certain reverend Falwell. I quote him: “As a Christian I feel that role modelling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children.”

Dear Mr. Falwell. I’m a Christian, too. Besides, I am bisexual. And I am deeply grateful that the makers of toddler TV seem to know more about tolerance than you do.

Apart from that, if you want to criticize the Teletubbies for bad rolemodelling, you can pick on other things that I think ARE bad: C’mon, they eat nothing but pudding when they’re hungry. What kind of a role model is that? Homosexuality doesn’t harm anyone, but unhealthy living and obesity KILL people! Tsk.

Q: What do you consider a successful (or good) day?

I have pondered this far too long now, and procrastinated the question over and over again. I tried to go back to these “perfect days” in my memory and find a pattern. And really, there is none.

So I can just tell ingredients which seem to be good for a good day. Talking to people I love is included. Not just the usual every day chatter, but a real talk.

Art always makes a day good. Creating art is even better. Good weather, good sex or other good things are surely helpful. But they’re not IT.

You know what? I’ll tell you two of my fondest memories to make you understand what I mean.

First one: I was still in my late teens, 20 perhaps, and it had been a bad day so far. I suffered some kind of puberty depression thing, and I went where you go in such a case: I went to see my best friend (and yes, that was chrome back then already, too). He lived on his own already then and had a real small room in an attic. I don’t remember why I was sad, just remember that I was, and I knocked on his door. I remember the rest very clearly. He opened, took on short look, and said something along the lines of “oh damn”. Let me in, tucked me away on his bed with a drink and lit a cigarette for me. We just sat there for a while. I did not feel like talking, and I did not need to.

He eventually put on some music and went back to his desk, where he had been drawing something (remember he was into airbrush stuff at the time). We spent the evening like that, I was just snuggling on the bed, listening to music, he was at the desk drawing. We had a cigarette together once in a while, or talked of insubstantial stuff, or I looked at the picture he was making and tell him my opinion. He made me smile.

It was a perfect evening. I felt… safe. I knew nothing would get at me there in that little attic, with my best friend being close. I still feel that way when he’s around. Just missing the attic sometimes.

The second memory is from school days, too. Another friend and me skipped some lessons (erm yes, we did that once in a while. Ahem. Don’t do that, kids, truancy is bad. Or, well it’s bad if your grades are not good. Ours were good enough. ).

Philipp was a great piano player, having had lessons since he was a kid. We stole into one of the music rooms, where they had a piano. I sat down on the windowsill and watched the schoolyard, he sat down to play.  “What do you think, could I put into music who you are?” he asked me. Then he tried. He captured my mood and my, well, essence in what he played for the next hour. It was a magical moment. I remember the sunrays pouring in through the blinds, drawing strange, warm designs on the floor, on the piano, on his hair while he played. We weren’t dating or some such, none of us was interested in the other, but at that moment, I was very much in love with him.

So what makes for such perfect moments, or days? It’s probably the small things. What both incidents have in common is the feeling of peace and safety about them, of no one expecting anything from the other, of a deep exchange without pressure or the usual human complicated emotions shat. A feeling of being at home and at ease in that very moment.

Q by Eury: Let’s say you and your mate are having problems since a while and you have decided to leave him. But then, he gets into an accident and becomes an invalid. Would you still leave?

This is a tough question for obvious reasons. I had to really think about it. My first reaction was yes, my second no. And the third and final is yes again. Yes I would.

I’d wait for a while, though, let’s say until he comes out of the hospital. Some weeks at most. Then, I’d tell him “See, before you had the accident, I had decided to leave you because [insert whichever reasons]. I still will, but I can stay for a while yet for the sake of the things we shared. So that you can get started into your new life. I just want you to know that I am about to leave and still will, so if you want me to leave immediately, I will. If you prefer me to stay for some weeks and help, I also will.”

I think (or I hope) that this would be the way I’d choose.

Q by Eury: You’re pregnant, you have a prenatal test and they tell you your child will be born retarded, will you keep it or have an abortion?

I did not even need a second to consider this. I’d keep it. 100%.

But probably not for the reasons you might think. I’m not an opponent to abortion in general. I believe that this is a question that can be answered by one person alone: The mother. And one other person should have a say in it: The father. Apart from that, no one (really no one) is entitled to an opinion. No lawyers, no clergymen, no frickin’ one.

That said, I know for a fact that I myself could never abort a child. I believe that a human being chooses where to get born, and to whom, so getting pregnant means (for me) that there is someone wanting to be with me. I could never refuse that.

Besides, I think that so called “handicapped” or “retarded” people are every bit as worthy as normal people. Who decides what is normal? I can see no difference whatsoever between a “normal” child and a “handicapped” one – except, of course, practical reasons. So if a mother decides she could not live with the strain or the responsibility, this is completely up to her. I just know that I personally could not. When I was pregnant, I did not undergo the prenatal testing that could show if my baby would have certain handicaps. I did not because I knew it would not make a difference.

Q by Eury: Let’s pretend you are American and have turkey on thanksgiving. The darn thing takes quite a while to make… several hours. The air is amazing… its smells awesome! They can’t wait to eat. You go to the kitch..take out the turkey and it slips to the floor, your dog runs and takes a quick lick. What do you do?

Oi, pretending to be American is kinda rough.

But seriously, I’d definitely serve the turkey. Do you know anyone who would not? Dog spittle is even antiseptic!

Q by kooskoodiroo: You go into a new country to live with your boyfriend, and that is a really crappy country with violence and poverty and all that. Your boyfriend is not allowed into your country for whatever reason, and like US citizens with Cuba, once you go to him you can’t get back home. Do you go on and live your life without him or stay in a horrible country to be with him?

Oh. Well, first thought was “Yes, of course, I’d do anything for love!” But then, I thought back. When I was a teenager, I used to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in the GDR (for those who don’t know: The eastern, communist part of Germany on the other side of the Berlin wall). I got along really well with my cousins and suffered from the oppressions we experienced each time when we crossed the border.

One summer, I fell in love there. He was two or three years older than I, and played the guitar quite well. Handsome fellow. We held hands and those things teenagers do.

After the vacations, I had to go back. It was heartbreaking. I know that letters would be controlled, and that there was no way that he could come to see me. Ever.

We ended it there. I knew that I would not be able to go and live with him in East Germany. Not because of violence or poverty, as you mentioned it. No, I could not because I could not live in a totalitarian regime. I could not live under a dictatorship, and I want to believe I never would have adapted to any dictatorship. I will never know, though, and it’s easy to claim.

In this case, though, I know. I haven’t been raised for this. I was taught to always speak up and speak my mind, to talk back even to people of authority, like teachers. I was taught that if you are right, and know how to defend yourself with arguments, you can find your way. I would not have survived in East Germany. I knew nothing of keeping a low profile and your mouth shut. It would not have worked out, and we both knew it.

So, in the end, the answer to your question is no. I’d do much for love … but not anything.

The fabulous Worthians MasterGnu and Karmalilly went for it. They chose to go for Top Five Lists. Nice one, gnuukums and lillylove, so here goes.

Gnu: I would like to know the top 5 things in the world that are the most annoying to you (and no stuff about people starving and that kind) – If you think Miss South Carolina could say the same thing as you, don’t say it

How dare you imply that Miss South Carolina and I would find the same things annoying? Actually, Miss South Carolina ranks pretty high on this list. Well, kind of. Here goes:

#5 Bad use of grammar, spelling and language in general.

Yes, well. Some people hate me for it. Some love me for it. I am adamant, I am ANAL about correct grammar, spelling and phrasing. I know it is horribly arrogant and smart-aleck, but it IS stronger than me. It makes for slapstick situations. I corrected profs, business partners and cops. I’d even correct my fiancé in the situation of proposing to me if he/she should use the incorrect form of subjunctive in his speech … fortunately, my hubby did it right back then. Otherwise, I would not be married.

#4 Lack of humour

Yes well, this is kinda stereotype, but I cannot help it. I can’t stand people who take everything seriously. Earlier, when pondering this question, I asked my man which 5 things HE thought annoyed me most. Astonishingly, he got them all right, even almost in the right order. Concerning humour, he said “I guess we’d not be together anymore if I were not kinda funny from time to time”. He is right.

#3 Cowardice and whininess

This is not the best thing to be annoyed by when you’ve got kids, believe me. Whining stretches my patience to the maximum, even with my children. Obviously, I can tolerate it even less in adults. I am rather the “leap before you look” type, and even reluctance can make me fidgety. Perhaps I’m just not a very nice person.

#2 Intolerance

I have been brought up cherishing the benefits of tolerance as much as experiencing the perfidies of intolerance. I. Can. Not. Stand. It. And this is true for all aspects of life. I do, for example, believe in God, but I would never, ever think of shoving this into someone else’s face. I have found some things to be true for myself, but knowing that something is true for myself does in no way mean it has to be true for anyone else. I grew up with a saying: “Never trust those who tell you they know the whole truth”. I found this to be very true.

#1 Miss South Carolina! Well, in a way. My number one of annoyances is STUPIDITY.

I don’t abide stupidity. Sadly, it is a thing I stumble upon almost every day. At times it is so bad it makes me grind my teeth. And I’m sometimes tempted to say tell them to get a clue and come back when they found it.

Lilly: If your house was besieged, which five consumables would you run out of last , assuming you didn’t starve?

Which means which one would I eat last because I like them last, I guess. Well, first thing is that I would probably eat the things I don’t like that much first, and keep the good ones for last. There are very few things that I do not like to eat. Except they taste like peppermint. Peppermint = yuck. Cinnamon = Yumm.

So I’ll give you the five things I will run out of last because they are around in such large quantities.

# 5 Herb tea. I have dozens of herb teas around. I grow some of the herbs myself, and make mixtures. They actually taste really nice – and cure all kinds of diseases.
#4 Toffifay. Yumm.

#3 Sweet chili sauce. I love it. I love (basmati) rice just with this chili sauce and nothing else. And I love it on almost anything else, too.

#2 Rice waffles. With chocolate cover. Yumm. Always got some packages here.

#1 Tuna. I love tuna. I have to have canned tuna in the house at all times. I often put it in salads, but I can eat it out of the can, too.

Gnu: Top five things you would like to do in life but probably will never do. Maybe cause you’re not able, cause you do not have the guts or any other reason… But preferably not too many that do not have to do only with you not being able to do it because of money or practical reasons plz

A tough one, because all the things I can think of that I want to do I just do, except for practical reasons. I know what kind of things you’re looking for, but I really can’t find any of those at first thought. There is really nothing that I want to do but am too scared of, or don’t want to do because it’s illegal, truly. And in other areas, I have tried literally everything I can think of that I want to try. But ok, I give it a tgo nevertheless.

#5 Skydiving. I’d really like to do it, but I don’t think I ever will. Not because I’d be too scared to try, but because it’s just not high enough on the list. Somehow, there are always other things more important.

#4 Having a library. Well, not necessarily the amount of books, but I want a room which is for nothing but this: Books. Really nothing else. As for the amount, I’m easily there. I own several thousand books, 2000 last I counted, and that was years ago. I love public libraries, I like getting books there, but – I always end up buying them nevertheless. When it comes to books, I have to OWN them. I want to touch them and smell them and write in them and love them to death… anyways, the amount is there. My mum easily has as much and more books which I’ll some day have, so I’d be able to put together an impressive library. They’re just scattered around the house, books everywhere. Right now, the reason why I don’t have a library is, of course, money and room. But I think that even if I had both (and even when I one day will), I might not do it. I’d go for the practical way and have a combined library/office thing where I can also work. This dream of ONLY books up to the ceiling, with a parapet going around halfway to the top, and nothing but thick carpets and an old armchair and a lamp for reading… that will as likely as not never happen. Meh.

#3 Traveling. Well, of course I WILL travel some before I die, but I still add it here because I will not by far have seen all the places I want to see. This is due to money and time issues, though, so it might disappoint you. I’m a traveler at heart, I think I could be perfectly happy leading a nomad life. My hubby is completely different there, tho, he likes safety and continuity, so that is another reason. But still, there are quite some places I want to see, and people I want to meet. I don’t mean certain people. I just love traveling and meeting people, talking to them, getting to know their way of life.

#2 Learning languages. When I was a kid, I always wanted to speak 10 or 20 languages. It always fascinated me, and I indeed pick(ed) up languages pretty fast. (I wrote another nBlog entry about this some while ago) I still want to. Heck, I still do. I am mutually working on Swedish and (modern) Greek, and I keep on hoping I WILL be able to really master them one day. When I’ve got time to learn more. When I can really concentrate on it… yeah, right.

#1 Save the world. Yeah, well. Don’t laugh. In a way, this is the only answer that really applies to the initial intent of the question. I’ve always felt I should. I’m just missing something. I don’t know how. Perhaps I even do know how, but I am too lazy. Damn.

So please bear with me and stay tuned to hear the answers to some funny and interesting questions by MasterGnu, karmalilly, kooskoodiroo and Eurydice. Coming soon.

Heh. Lovely, V1c. This has been one of my favorite topics of conversation for quite a while when I was still studying (history, btw.)

Yes, I do have a philosophy on history. And that is that all history repeats itself. Although we might grow and develop, we tend to make the same mistakes over and over. It was one of the reasons why I studied history at all. I believe that is we know history, and follow the events around us, we will to a certain degree be able to predict what will happen.

I found this to be true.

Being able to predict this isn’t going to help anyone, but I only found that out much later. At the time, I thought knowledge was power, and knowledge would enable me to change the world. Heh.

The use of history varies immensely from country to country. Having grown up in a country that lost two wars I know what common guilt feels like, what it feels like to lose any kind of national identity to the spinnings of history. Each people has their own way of dealing with history. I felt this very accurately when I was in France, where I was shocked how there could still be people openly admiring Napoleon, who overran Europe with war. And in Canada, where I found students having the Canadian flag hanging in their rooms. I was envious, because no German student I know would’ve placed the German flag anywhere in their proximity. Any sign of national pride was and is frowned upon here, because we had an overdose of it half a century ago. On the one hand, it’s a sad thing, it makes us lose some of our identity. On the other hand, I have seldom met such an accurate awareness of wanting to be tolerant, of fighting for minorities’ rights than here. So this coin has two sides.

And as for the last part of your question “Is there actually a true history?” – of course not. History is written by the winner. It has always been this way. Having specialized in medieval history, I can tell tales about the search for accurate sources. Of course, in the Middle Ages only the upper class and clergy were literate, so it was them who “made” history. We often did translations of many source, deciphered manuscripts, compared to paintings, crests, coins, scrolls… anything to puzzle the different hints together to make a puzzle coming closer to the truth. So history was, and still is a question of who has the power to disclose it.

As far as this is concerned, we live in an interesting age. Because even though the media and government hold much of the disclosing (or concealing, or interpreting, censoring, distorting) power in their hands, the possibilities of modern communication and personal documentation become huge and almost impossible to control. Which is interesting. We’ll see where the currents of history will take us yet.

Thank you, V1ctorya. These were interesting to talk about.

Stay tuned for some Top Five List questions by MasterGnu and Karmalilly!

Hah. Lovely question, actually. For those who are not familiar with the theory of Pangaea, check it out here: Theory of Pangaea. It basically says that, 250 million years ago, there weren’t many continents, but one huge super continent which later broke into the continents we know.

Look at that, doesn’t that look fab?

So, well, do I buy it? The answer is yes. And of course you now want a reasoning as to why. But again, as I said in my previous (math) post, I have to admit that my knowledge in this area is not sufficient to intelligently argue my point on a scientific basis. OK, I heard that there is some evidence for the Pangaea theory, such as the fossil and coal distribution throughout the world, distinctive rock strata and such.

But that is not the reason why. The reason is that I believe it to be true because I like it. (Actually, if everybody would just have an opinion about the things he saw through sufficiently, we would probably not be allowed an opinion on anything anymore).

So, I like it. I like the thought that we all descend from one single land mass. I like the thought of a continent that huge that you could’ve roamed freely from pole to pole. Even if you were only a dinosaur.

As all three of them call for a rather longish answer, I will answer all of them in a separate entry (and each will be a day of its own). The first one is day eight, and it’s a really tough one for me.
Question #1 by V1c: Do you believe in the fundamental basis of mathematics or was it something concocted to keep men busy and feeling superior as they play with little made-up numbers? Is it just another way to provide fake proof to theories that continue the subjugation of people or is there some real basis to it? Is it a pure science, from God, a divine entity, natural, or another creation of man?

This is a tough one because I used to hate math when I was in school. But even then, when I was honest with myself, I admit that I rather hated it because it was a family tradition to hate it. None of us ever had been good at math. It was unheard of. So I decided at a very young age to hate math, not considering for a while if I really did. There were moments during school when I became, against my own will, fascinated. I remember when we did calculus of probabilities in school, and I was loving it. I couldn’t get enough of it, it was just so… beautiful. I really did my best to hide it from everyone.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the question. It is like the question of the hen and the egg, and I feel horribly inapt to answer it, as my refusal of the subject made me blissfully ignorant in many areas of it. But, as at that time when we did calculus of probability, there were moments… when I ventured into philosophical and social studies at the university, we touched math once in a while. And there were moments, when we discussed the Golden Mean, for example, when I thought I glimpsed something. When I thought I understood why some people claimed that math was the basis of the universe, of life and all the rest.

I never came close enough in knowledge to really have the right to answer. But I can understand why some people fall for math as if it were a religion. Actually, quite some religions do use math for themselves, and they probably know why.