To cook or not to cook

I would love to know how to cook. I know so many people who not only know how to cook but also have such a patience and pleasure by doing it.
If it was for my mother we would all just take food substitute pills like in the science fiction movies. Not me though, I do love to eat and taste all different flavors and textures, experiencing new and delighting with old. I'm definitely a foodie, sort of a food bon vivant in small doses.
The problem is, I only remember food when I'm hungry. I admire all those who plan the next meal hours before or even days before. How do they do that? And I'm not talking about feeding a family or dinner parties, picnics and others of the kind.
(While writing this I just remembered all the crazy parties at my parent's house when my friends and I started the nights with well poured dinners.)
Where normally the guys are the best cooks I can consider myself a great assistant. At least that. I got used to it with pretty much all of my ex-boyfriends, great cooks they were and still are. Yes I know, I was lucky. Cough, sarcasm, cough...
It was a lot of fun back then in those legendary never-ending summer parties! Cooking with friends is a celebration of food while cooking to eat is an essential need. It sure changes the whole perspective, doesn't it?
I definitely need to review my eating behavior. It's a real bummer that every single time I do think about food I'm starting to faint and ready to eat the first thing that comes near my mouth, as long it's vegetarian of course. Which by no means represents health food. And I know that well. Even more now living in a new city with new habits. Again.

I ♥ NY

Here I am in the Big Apple. Didn’t see that coming… almost.
It is impossible not to fall in love the first second you see her. And even if I’m known for falling in love quickly with new far away places this time it could really happen with anybody and it does.
Do you know any person at all in his right mind that knows NYC and doesn’t like her? Exactly my point. So it is not that hard for others to comprehend. I myself knew before ever touching this ground that I would love the city unconditionally.
I surrender dear New York with all my dreams and thoughts, I surrender to you eager of all that you have to give and teach me.
I’m yours as long as you have me.


Moved on 30 March 2010

My cool stripes

My stripes and I. Just two, not three, I never know so I had to look again to be sure. I’m proud of my stripes. They were my first tattoo and the most difficult to do, too.
In order to get them, I had to drive my motorcycle on a raining night in a roundabout. Drove so that the rear tire went directly into the worst point of a pretty flat water hole where she finally lost control. Then I targeted my bike so that I could hit the small step of the pedestrians walk. Throw my helmet away and flew through the walk side made of asphalt with millions of small spiky stones with my left hand and all the right side of my face. What a rush!
Back on my feet, I tried to turn the bike on again but she didn’t want to. So I parked her the best I could and walked around 2 kilometres on a really steep road.
I didn’t notice anything strange, I was in shock-survival mode. When I arrived at my boyfriend’s house I rang the bell and… everything went black. Amazing how much our strength limits overwork to survive.
Only two days after could I see myself on a mirror. Did I say myself? I have never ever seen before such an awful monster like this one trying to stare at me over one eye. And I swear I didn’t say Bloody Mary three times, not even once! All was swallow, a huge mess of strange bumps, totally unrecognisable. After the swallows got away, the right side of my face looked a bit like Freddy Krüger, only much much worse, so I named myself, back then, Penny Krüger. It was crazy to see the whole skin's rebirth, from transparent holes to baby pink, and miraculously back to normal.
Now, when we talk about it we regret never had taken any photos. But then again, we were more preoccupied on getting my face back, which was easier than any doctor thought. I was young, strong, a real sports girl, so it cured so fast and good that all it was left behind was these stripes made by a few stones that were, as it seems, spikier than the others.
It was a really hard job to do, this tattoo!
But at the end it turned pretty well: they say scars show that someone truly lives, you know. Oops, I meant tattoos of course.

What and how is a word?

Words. We use words every day, we speak them, we hear them, we read them and we write them. They fill our surroundings completely.
But what is a word? A word can mean an object, a colour, a thought, a feeling, an everything…
We couldn’t even conceive a world without words.

Every new day new words are born.
Words are defined and the sum of definition is human knowledge. Existing definitions are then questioned and new knowledge is formed by answers in a constant chain.
Words as they are belong so much in our daily life that it would be impossible to name yellow to the colour blue. Could you imagine naming joy to sadness? Or hate to love?
A word sustains its own meaning.

The printed word still fascinates many, I as one among them. It transcends our boundaries of imagination beyond these same words.
The printed word in all its forms - newspapers, magazines, billboards, posters and of course books - is a powerful media. Reading on computers or phones or whatever is greatly increasing in this rather ephemeral digital era but it cannot yet replace the immutable experience of reading words printed on paper.

I myself am writing this small essay on a digital notebook but desiring immensely to just let me drown in the words of a magnificent book.
Don’t neglect your printed education. It is indeed an amazing experience as it always will be.

Word by word into a phrase, phrase by phrase into a world.

5 things I hate, 5 things I love

I love the ocean. The sea with his white curly waves breaking in the soft sand. Love his melody… smooth or rough. Love his strength, his never ending phases… the feel of infinitum.

I hate migraines. I hate migraines that don’t allow me to thing straight, to see straight, to hear straight, to even feel straight.

I love children. Their innocence, their constant questions, their curious big eyes, their naïve beliefs. I love their unwritten future, the “impossible is nothing” feeling.

I hate hypocrisy as one of the major sins of the human kind. Arrogance. Falseness. This ridiculous sootiness. It's like people forget we’re just a tiny particle in this vast universe, that we’re nothing more than dust in the wind.

I love the truth, clear and bright… like the music that feeds my ever-growing thirst, deep in my soul.

I hate sauerkraut.

I love the animals for staying true to themselves, being able to live with nature in perfect harmony, being a part of Mother Nature.

I hate us, humans. For living above this same nature, destroying instead of nurturing, fighting with each other since the dawn of days.

I love us, humans. For our compassion and passion, our art and creation, our think and feel… our love.

All in one, I hate to hate, love to love.

Yuppies

Although I totally hate labels and try to see every person as a single individual there is still, how could I call it, different groups where similar type of persons fit.
So here I am who never wanted to judge nothing and no one and what I am doing now? Judging.
Maybe they don’t even exist, ‘cause every label you put on someone is totally subjective, ‘cause a person is always a person, extremely complex, with a past, a present, a possible future, with a whole world around him, family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, the milk man and the taxi driver.
My topic, this so-called label I’m speaking about is the yuppie.
It makes me laugh inside when I see how they try so hard to seem confident when walking with their suitcases and their copied piece by piece clothing style of their boss, or their mentor, or their men’s magazine. They are so easy to find within a crowd. Head way up, every single detail thousand times checked. They look like they could rule the world but at the same time they’re shitting on their pants.
The yuppie is not quite bright, actually a small dumb. Don’t ever ask him any, let’s say… more profound questions. It’s really easy to know what he’s thinking, because in his head there’s only place for one thing: power or money, call it what you want. That’s why he is a great businessman and a damn top opportunist.
And in this fucked up world these yuppies that climb the ladder by stealing and walking over others with no sign of regret or a soul for that matter, are actually the ones who reach the last floor.
So, it's up to you, save your soul, stay in the background where real things happen, where real ideas grow, where you forever struggle climbing further the knowledge pyramid or…
Stay shallow, keep to you all the credits from others, reach that last floor, no need to think over there, and maybe one day, just maybe… you can all jump over your big phat window as the greatest dumbass team of all times.
And, who knows… without all these yuppies out there maybe the world will finally start to be a better place. It’s just an Utopia, but we can dream, right?

chill out

The expectations are huge and some times I get overwhelmed by all of this. Fear of failing, fear that it won’t pay at the end. Even when my self-confidence increased greatly in this new year. And I can see the fruits of it already.
There’s a crisis out there that doesn’t seem to end any time soon. I know I have to free myself, don’t be so uptight and wanting too badly to be perfectionist in all chores. I’m just human.
When I’m laid-back I work much better. Ideas flow loosely without that mental pressure. So girl, just chill and everything will be just fine. You’re blessed with an amazing family that’s always there for you in your long unconventional journey. They will always be your anchor, your harbour.
It’s not an easy road I’m taking but it is my own adventure.
Just keep following your path as good as you can… but relaxed.
After all it’s just advertising. It’s not like we’re trying to save the world.

I wanna walk like a penguin over the big Alster Lake.

It’s still snowing here in Hamburg. The big Alster Lake is frozen and I want to walk over it since two weeks already. I see so many photos in the internet of happy faces walking like penguins with Glühwein in their hands and ask myself: will I manage to go there before the global warming attacks?
Global warming… it will probably come only by the time of our great-great-grandchildren – not that I’m complaining – but till there the winters are just getting dramatically colder by the year.
It is so new strange for me to see a whole month of uninterrupted snow falling and seagulls flying everywhere. I’m a child of the sea and I’m used to experience real snow only on the mountains.
This is a harbour city, we have 2 seas nearby, north and east, and all this snow is pretty surprising for all Hamburgers. The Alster wasn’t frozen since more than 15 years.
Damn, I have to go there, it’s imperative that I go there! You never know, maybe the global warming does come sooner than expected.

First Resolution

Aloha digital "Brave New World"!
I really should start writing my thoughts and nonsenses here. I have this blog for a time already but it stayed empty till, well, now.
First resolution for 2010: write a few words in the "digital way" at least one time every week.
I'm studying at Miami Ad School Europe in Hamburg Germany for a while now and I have to say, I never felt so light and free of bad energy. The new year couldn't start better!
It wasn't easy last year, not easy at all. Not because of all the work, which is really overwhelming but the atmosphere in our class was some strange twilight zone kind of thing. In all my life of study I never experienced something like that. It was like we had constantly a black cloud over our heads, cursing us... Boo!
Well, now that I'm doing another program, I have all these different new people whom I'm so excited to know and work with.
The workflow is so much better when you feel this free. And looking forward to going to class like in the good old days?... What a wonderful feeling!
Happy New Year!