spiders

I don't like spiders! Yes, I know, most people don't and I bet there are humans out there who dislike them even more. After all, I am not arachnophobic.
It is often said that the way spiders move is what freaks us out. And yes, that is part of it. But what always gets me is: When I see a spider I imagine a close-up shot of their round body being smashed and all their slimy insides exude. Sometimes I fear that they explode when I pass them. I know they won't do that but just the thought of it....
Despite my general dislike I let the smaller ones live inside my house. I heard they eat mosquitos. Well, let me tell you, they don't! I had to hunt down most of the mosquitos myself last summer. I even found some hiding behind spider webs (safely guarded of course).
I tried to remove a spider that fell in the *too big to live with me category* from my house once, which took me almost an hour. Boy, did I feel proud after that! I even called a friend of mine in the middle of the night to tell him about my success. Only to find out that this little bugger had been waiting outside the front door all night. As soon as I opened the door the next morning it hurried back inside! I was so mad that i kicked it out again immediately. I don't know if it survived but I really didn't care.
pixel provided me with an interesting link about spiders. Go there to read more about arachnids or continue reading my post to find out how spiders mess up my dreams at night.

My all-time favourite spider-nightmare

I am visiting some friends who live in an old farmhouse in the countryside. A strange looking forest is located right next to the barn. In fact, the entire setting is somewhat magical. Therefore, I am not surprised to find an undefined baby animal inside the barn which I can understand without the need of words.
It got lost while playing and can't find its way back home. Poor thing! And although I've been warned not to enter the forest I go. After all, it's a lost baby animal (and I can understand what it's saying!) and, really, what is the worst that can happen?
So I bring the little one back home safely and return with that "Ha! See? Nothing happened." feeling.
As I enter the house, everyone looks at me, moves in slow motion, stops talking.
One of my friends moves up to me saying "You've been to the forest" and while I still wonder how he can possibly know he asks me to turn around and lifts up my shirt. I can hear everyone going "Oh no!" "Holy shit!" but since they are looking at my back I have no idea what's wrong. It sounds bad, though.
So, my friend starts explaining:
A very unusual sort of spider (next to other very unusual creatures) lives in that forest. In order to raise their babies they crawl up human legs all the way up to your shoulder-blade (they prefer the right one) dig a rather big hole shaped like a coffin in your flesh, which for some reason doesn't hurt nor bleed and put their babies in there. Your body, as the little ones grow, becomes a food source for them. The entire *coffin* is of a glowing blue color, the spiders are more or less white.
I am beginning to panic because I obviously can't get away from what's harming me. "We need to remove them" "No kidding!" I am begging for a general anesthetic just to find out that No! I can't have it. The spider babies would instinctively know what is going on and they would start crawling further inside my body. Just wonderful! So I end up drinking an entire bottle of Vodka while my friend goes into the kitchen to find his sharpest and biggest knife.
The last thing I remember before waking up is the pain in my right shoulder-blade.
Have I mentioned that I really don't like spiders?!

Here is a Calvin and Hobbes quote that is not only my favourite but also makes a perfect ending to my spider-nightmare-post:

"At night my mind does not much care
If what it thinks is here or there.
It tells me stories it invents
And makes up things that don't make sense.
I don't know why it does this stuff.
The real world seems quite weird enough."

German movies

Watching 23 again last night, I decided on advertising some German movies today. Besides 23, I recommend watching:
--> Im Herz. Im Bauch. Im Juli.
--> kurz und schmerzlos
--> Das Leben ist eine Baustelle
--> Friedhof der Namenlosen

The last movie is a rather short one produced by my former roommate.

I still haven't seen Das weisse Rauschen. So, if anyone has watched it and would like to give a review on it I'd be very pleased!

And if you ever make it to Hamburg you have to take a look at the old St.Pauli Elbe-tunnel. I make everyone visiting me walk through it so be prepared!

birthday

My birthday was fun!
I invited a few friends over and we pretty much drank every single drop of alcohol I had at home (even the two bottles of wine that were part of my present, which was a total waste at 5am). Including me, we were a total of 8 people spending the night at my place. Considering the size of my apartment it was more of camping inside a house. Awww, the joy of air mattresses!
(for some reason I always think of *desire* when hearing the word *camping*)

Everyone else (except me) is out for a walk right now. It's a beautiful day. Cold but sunny. I was in charge of getting more beer and food for tonight (someone had to do it, right?) because today one of our TV channels finally shows the Michael Jackson interview and I got curious about it reading flippy's post. I just have to see it myself. I don't know if I can make it through the whole interview but I'll give it a try...

blogs

I was unaware of the existence of blogs before i started playing GNE back in October 02. Now my daily breakfast changed from tea (black with more than 2% milk) and a cigarette to tea, a cigarette and reading blogs.
Having started my own just this month I still don't really know what I am doing! Therefore, I not only enjoy reading posts like Eglantine's it's also a big help. Thanks, Eggy!
Following links from blog to blog today I ended up being totally absorbed by Joshua Norton' s writing. Thanks to you, too, whoever you are.

I also came across this personality test again, inspoetica always talked about. I took it back then but just read a short summary on what my result meant. So today I read more about INFJ and I couldn't stop smiling. Isn't it lovely how this test gives me an elaborate excuse for avoiding the company of people? Instead of saying *I really don't feel like going out tonight* I can now say *I have an unusually rich inner life and that's entertaining enough -thank's for asking, though*.

guestbook!

I have been keeping pixel away from work again and talked her into helping me with my guestbook. And there it is! Tada!
Thank you!!!

(due to my scanner problems I am still not able to upload new menu item drawings. so the only way to reach my guestbook is via this post. as soon as I can convince it to work for me again I'll have permanent links.)

27 photographs

I planned to start a new section today where I wanted to have as many of my own photographs as I am old (just like the playlist part). Obviously, my scanner didn't think that my idea was so great! It refused to be any help at all. *sigh*
But - never let the machines get in in your way - I uploaded a few to see how it could look like. Hopefully, there will 27 photographs soon.
And keep in mind: This is just a prototype, puny humans!

Also, there is nothing romantic or nice about feeding horses on a winter morning! It.is.just.cold.

I like GNE

Have I ever mentioned that I like GNE ?

weekend entertainment

I enjoyed the surreal word of Peter Greenaway watching 8 1/2 women last night. Another unpredictable, sometimes disturbing, yet wonderful to look at piece of his work. Nevertheless, Drowning by numbers will always be my favourite.

Go play the Sushi race or have a look at this flash portfolio.

a glass of wine

Inviting Derxus over for a glass of wine always seems to end up with a bottle each and several Caipirinhas at the bar next door.
My apologies go out to Selva, pixel and Yogi for being so intoxicated while chatting! You probably think we should take Typing 101 :)
(and may I add... Derxus smoked!)
Trying to recover from last night I started the day (after sleeping in late) with an excellent Mozzarella/tomato sandwich, seedless grapes, lots of non-alcoholic beverages and several latté. Strolling around the neighbourhood on a cold but sunny winter day also helped a lot to get back to normal.
No further plans for today, just surfing the web.
You surfed 1 web:
mood +10 "You waste a lot of time...but it feels so good."
karma -15 "You neglect your family, friends and work."

Soccer

I have been asked to take pictures to illustrate several poems about soccer. I don't know much about soccer at all!
This leads me again to the question:
How much does one have to know about the object (or subject) when taking photographs? Is it necessary to understand all the functions and rules? Would too much knowledge limit creativity?
A first attempt has been made. I wonder how my final selection will look like...

test

first entry. i hope it works :)
without pixel i would not be able to do this!!