this is Sam

To my dear friends,

Today I finally got my paws on the keyboard.

FIrst of all; I am appalled! B! What were you thinking, the last entry is OLD :D

So, I am proudly stepping in for you, no shushing allowed :)! I will talk to you about new friends, the places B saw, small disasters, happiness and grumpiness:

First of all, B met old friends in London and we made new ones! The munchkin family introduced B to Buzz and comisario Woodie, I saw them on DVD later on and they are awesome, if only they could come by to our home!!!

places:
- B has been travelling and working a lot, I barely saw her here at home
- what I DO know: she saw a lot of musicians in Rotterdam, there is house that has no rect angels and a museum almost completely made of wood. there is a beach club in Cologne called km 689 (yes, people count the rhine kilometers from the source and my home town is on kilometer 689, there is a stone saying that!!!!!!!!!)

Disasters & grumpiness:
- she can´t seem to find my white scarf!
- I can´t seem to find the red one
- Snookles looks funny, what happened to my ever-snoring friend the sheep?

Happiness:
- B got finally rid of the sofa she hated so much!
- B looks happy because she is getting to know so many nice and open-minded people out there
- I finally got a bath
- Emilia is happy

Hugs and kisses,
Sam

FOTOS!!!!

our new friends!!!!


Rotterdam


B, I don´t get it, where are the angels?
I have copied this from Marta´s official homepage!

km 689, I have copied this from koeln-deutz.de :)

NPR car talk

I know that Keren is familiar with the above, is anybody else?
It´s HI-LA-RIOUS!

I remember listening to my first NPR car talk show when driving to Frankfurt. I had no idea what was ahead of me, cracking up over the stering wheel and I still cannot believe those guys. They were making fun of themselves with the dumbest things they ever did to cars, losing their eyebrows to combustible substances, a motor falling out of it´s frame because they removed something substantial, etc.

The presenters are brothers and manage to explain any car problem to non car connoisseurs. Never imagined that bolts, dashboards, a greater variety of noise any car can make could be so much fun, Whilst writing this, they are discussing with a priest the worst car on the planet EVER and its resistance to any deer confronted with it. I am really bad at reporting situational comics. Oh God, right now they are talking to a reformed hippy discussing how to manage a shift gear. Is it better to release the clutch quickly or slowly? You won´t believe the fun they are making around all of this turning it into an analogy of the relationship the girl was originally discussing the clutch question with.

Just love it.

Now Is All, ain´t it

It has been ages since you guys heared from me here.

So much has happened, I am impressed, amazed, tired, and happy.
First of all I realized how much I miss my friends out there, and throughout the last weeks, I understood taht I must be a little bit clearer on it.

Before I do: be happy out there, tell your loved ones you love them. All that exists IS in this very moment. The last sentence is already written in the past, and whilst I am writing these lines, I am in the present. It makes us who we are. With all of our experiences, joyous moments, awful memories, yes they are there too. In an every single second that is, we redefine what we are, how we think, if we want to take a turn or stay in the road we are right now.

People giving us grief without ceasing don´t have the right to do so. we can chose if that is something we want and most of the time, our inner balance decides if we want to bear that or if we shut it down. And again, we decide this every second, the second, the now, is all there is.

And there are the joyous moments. Like today hanging out with a friend, enjoying each other´s company. The car that smells like coffee because I left the warm coffee in there for a couple of hours whilst I was enjoying life. Finally finishing a killer T&L (three months in my job is a loooong period to collect receipts, trust me). Followed by tax declarations, I am happy to finally being almost done with either of these! I am having two days off to do things. Tomorrow, I will most probably be going to the beach in Domburg. A couple of hours in the car, but I want to see the sun, the water, plunge into the sand and get freckles.

And all of this and so much more I want for you guys. Read the grass harp by Capote if you want to be delighted, listen to music. Knock yourselves out with whatever makes you happy. Try to understand that NOW is all there is. Past is memory and the next minute fiction. It all boils down to this.

And a big hug from my side. Colourful thoughts. Forget being sensible and live. I promise I will try to do that with small things here.

fotos Washington

what is it about the US

When my best friend told me years and years ago that I might like the US, I clearly had no idea.

Having set foot there for the first time in 2005, I can only confirm it more and more.

I do see the discrepancies in society, politics upsides and downsides. Dynamics can be considered being pushy and the smiling and "how are ya" unnecessary. Every country has their people I don´t want to deal with. Also in my own, of course.

I have friends there and I am really lucky to have cool colleagues there to teach me the principles of sarcasm, great presentations and the latest trends in music. such clichees and so subjective, but it´s my little view on this world right now, whilst all the images are sinking in. I like the automatic hi there how are ya. it´s a nice pattern.

I feel privileged to have met all of these people, howdy´s and have a good ones.

Oda - my genius

ok, it´s on.

"Onner" than on. Recently, I discovered TED.com, a website where people choose their topics and have an 18 minute talk about it.

Benjamin Zander on music, Jill Bolte, a neuroanatomist on her stroke, and this one is my favourite so far:

Elisabeth Gilbert - new perspective on creatitivty

Elisabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat Pray, Love. Has anybody out there ever read that book? I haven´t.

She introduces the audience to being terrified by the huge success she´s had with the aforementioned book. She raises the very valid question of "What now!? Am i EVER going to be able to create something equally recognised?" She says herself: probably not.

And here comes the interesting part:

She did some research and found out that the Greek and Romans in their times had a different view on what a genius is supposed to be than we have now. According to romans the genius is something inspiring a person or not. -> A poem looking for the author who hopefully has something to write in that very moment. It´s not the person itself only. Being creative is therefore an effort of an individual AND the genius in collaboration, unless the genius is having a lazy day. Or if the poet isn´t quick enough, the poem looks for the next poet to write it down.

This new perspective on creativity has a soothing effect on me. Our society is looking out for geniuses. We are not supposed to make mistake. Geniuses in our societies pay a high price, I mean who can be perfect ALL the time? I feel sorry for that. Don´t know. I have my infantile artistic minutes and my job from time to time requires having a good genius around. Others may aspire being a genius. I am rathing opting for fun. Whilst wrtiting these lines, I decided to call my insiration Oda.

I you have a couple of minutes to spare, enjoy Elisabeth quoting Tom Waits, scolding herself the unproductive genius in her office and the simplicity of life. For a couple of minutes.

Myself, I am making a pact with Oda. Come on, Oda, let´s get some stuff done and have fun :)

What´s your thought on this?

Steve Jobs - uh huh

All the things I heared about Jobs so far

- tyrant
- genius
you name it.

This speech surprised me today.

I am happy

Happiness is a cool thing to have.
Try to catch a butterfly and you know what I am talking about.

Right now, there is nothing more to do than letting that proverbial beautiful thing fly around my head. I am sure it will sit down on my shoulder and accompany all of us for a bit.

Peace out

Nacho, k tal!

Hey dear,

have been thinking about you all day, don´t know why.
Hope all is well with you, dear.

Hugs,
B

don´t want to go to bed

So, I need to write down my to do list instead of pondering, I will give you the light version:

- I already started putting my foot down when it comes to work, people will like the outcome
- July is not too far away for booking Rotterdam, the North Sea Jazz Festival will be helt there for four days and I already booked vacation, so accomodation and tickets and I am good to go!
- tax declaration for the last two years
- water vacation
- mountain vacation

That should be sufficient for a couple of days, I don´t want to overdo it

To all of you out there, please accept my warmest wishes for 2011.
This year is going to be massively cool!
Hugs,
B