The longest post title of 2011: Diet and exercise and clothing and other females' stuff; also, proof that on some level I am a closeted sociophobe

This is mainly for the females .

I came across an article today, advising women how to boost their confidence.
To never wear a low cleavage or ill-fitting clothes to work, is quite logical and should be pressed on young women.
But really this is really quite a sad article as it suggests to behave as normal as possible when on a first date and underlines the importance of small talk.
Or do I just find it sad because I could never achieve that level of groomed normality?
Who knows,
anyway, here is the summary from the end:


SIX QUICK TRICKS TO GIVE YOU A LIFT

* Take all those clothes that are too small for you to the charity shop. Gazing at wannabe smaller sizes every time you open your wardrobe door is like punching yourself in the eye on a daily basis.
* Stop keeping clothes for ‘best’ — wear them regularly.
* Smile. Whether you feel like smiling or not, it makes you feel and look better, and other people respond better to you as well.
* Stop comparing your life with other people, especially celebrities. Most of them are worried sick about slipping down the charts or not getting offered the best roles. Their self-obsession means that they are rarely capable of holding down a happy and loving relationship.
* Write a proper diary, on paper with a pen. Imagine it’s being written for the future you and make it a good account of your life, filled with humour and positive insights. Make your tone brave and optimistic. Adopting this writing style will enable you to change your perspective of what’s happening to you.
* Compliment yourself. Out loud. In the mirror or during your working day.

(Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1368793/Boost-confidence-Simple-tricks-bold.html#ixzz1HoeVf8Mg)


As you can see from here, I ain't gonna write no diary on paper anymore. Except my recent traveling diaries.
However harsh this list might be on celebrities, it is sad and true that people including myself who has always been a perfectionist, are obsessed with becoming similar to a photoshopped picture.

And yes, I also buy clothes for "the time when I will be exercising regularly more and lose 10 pounds" - especially when I find something in the second hand shops where they only have one item in one size.

But that's ok!

I have found my personal perfect "healthy" lifestyle to be like this: when eating in a very healthy manner (which I try to do always, when going shopping, say no to the salami and yes to the mortadella, no to the meat and yes to the chicken, no to the sausages and yes to the fish, no to the chocolate and yes to the grapes), try to go for long walks daily or at least every second day. While having the beer-pizza-cake-phase, go jogging, do some pilates or at least some basic exercises - a whole set of b-b-b (belly-bum-biceps) takes less than 30 minutes.
Also drink a lot of water or light mint tea. they work wonders for the skin.

Keep healthy snacks in the fridge, avoid junk but have it every once in a while.
I have yet to figure out what these mythical creatures might be - how can a carrot be a snack, it's a friggin' vegetable! 'Healthy snack' is an oxymoron really, BUT it is possible to choose the healthies snack possible. like ice cream or dark chocolate or juice. or any light dairy product (although there one should always check the sugar levels).

April will be the no-alcohol month again since it just goes so well with my schedule. And does miracles for the skin.


So now you know how to easily stay healthy. Well, what I call healthy at least.

Also, I believe that mechanism of compensation totally justifies smoking, alcohol, junk food and lazyness if they are not all combined over a long period.

Ha!

Victory!

After today's last-minute turned in paper, all obligatory academical achievements have been made!

Celebratory monthly shower has been taken!

So, what follows?

Well, there is the tiny small detail of a 80-100 page master thesis somewhere in the background...

but for now, as Gogol Bordello puts it in his sexy Slavic accent:

Party!

Of course there was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus Christ

You better know what movie that knowledge comes from.
It was a funny one!

Anyway, my recent rant goes towards the weather of marburg.

Dear Weather of Marburg,
what the f#@! ?
Is it not enough to shock your recipients with snowfall during the evening to completely melt it down and let the sun shine on our noses the next day, now you have to go from nice and warm to friggin' freezin' in half a day?
No wonder half of us in here are sick. Including me. Which obviously is not good, since on Friday until 12 AM I have to turn in my last written paper.

Ahhhhhh. Last. Written. Paper.
Which of course means that the time pressure has to be bigger than ever. So here I am, two days to go.... and, well, I've written a bit but it's gonna be a sleepless 48 hours, I feel.

It is motivating though to see all the other students failing pathetically with our printers (and they do suck but I already know what to do in ink and paper crises, as I have had many of those) and type away on their little laptops with pressure, panic and a little bit of hopelessness in their eyes.
AHAHAHAHA!

But... as a master's degree student I have to bring more to the table than the little ones and thus have to present my paper earlier than them.
So.. I guess this realisation adds a little pinch of panic to my eyes as well.


And to add to the motivation problem and the time problem, which all of the sudden present themselves simultaneously, I received my hair dye package today. Yes, I use the same Wella© hair dye my hair dresser does. Apparently here you really can order anything from the Internet, although in the manual it says - for professional use only. Oh well. What can go wrong.
Haha. Now let's hope I didn't jinx anything with that.


Seeya!

Realms

My time in Germany has been a time of many firsts: during my stay here I've bought my first corset, experienced my first gothic festival, written my first piece of lay journalism slash book review. Also, I've gotten my first pot plants (excluding my cactus at home, because come on, that thing won't die, no matter what you put it through), my first bikini wax and my first Thai massage.

Now the pot plants will probably wither away because I am no good with them - and have always preferred flowers, not dirt and leaves, as a present. Also, I will probably never again subject myself to hot wax, ever.
But a small Thai woman is a nice thing to succumb to! Tiny people who put you under massive amounts of pain - in case you don't exercise and stretch regularly, ha ha ha Amer - are interesting. Furthermore, they have tiny cute soft voices and their language sounds like small girls playing in a sandbox. And I don't mean those mean eastern European girls who fight for the last sand cake. I mean nice pink-dress ribbon-bow little sweet enough to eat girls. This just adds to the soothing experience of a Thai massage!

However, as some friends have also pointed out, the Asian people see themselves as a separate group and won't really accept other races as trusted persons. A friend of mine spent enough months in Asia to be able to fathom this, and these women were just reminiscent of his words. They talk about my boyfriend behind his back because he doesn't speak German, and then obviously they talk about us behind our backs because, hey, I missed those Thai lessons back in school.


As I will probably not have a deep understanding and sympathy with the Asian people, my admiration for their culture and traditions remain, especially since my mother is going to China and I sincerely hope for a real kimono for my birthday.
Most of all I admire the Japanese tea ceremonies, the geisha culture, the detail and devotion these people put into food, clothing themselves and drinking tea!

In addition to that I love Japanese movies. So today I decided to finish what started about a year ago, the fascination with Nagisa Oshima, who tells rather curious and unorthodox love stories. Some time ago I watched Realm of the Senses where a couple searches for various ways to pleasure themselves until they try strangulation and to satisfy the woman, the man lets her strangle him to death. She cuts off his penis to keep his.. um, well, to her his heart, I guess. A manifestation of physical love and quite sick a movie, yet with a deep understanding of a real physical pain that can overwhelm one when the one the heart and the soul and the body want, is not around.

A day or two ago I continued with Empire of Passion, another Oshima movie about a married woman who is left lonely by her rickshaw-driving husband, who works hard all day and comes home to get drunk and go to sleep. She lets herself be seduced by a younger man and finally they kill her husband.
Up until that point the movie is great and beautiful, but then the love story turns into a ghost story as the ghost of the man starts hunting them and showing himself to her daughter in her dreams, telling her the whereabouts of his body. The woman goes pretty insane and in the end tries to burn herself inside her house. Finally, the couple are arrested and beaten, until the very end of their 100 beatings with a bamboo stick do they confess, both insisting it was just them, not the other.
It's a good story and is beautifully wrapped up, but a weird string of a commenting voice starts pulling the second half of the movie, confusing people. Also, the ghost-sequences are not that well done. Sadly. But most of the movie - very enjoyable.

Today I continued with Max, Mon Amour - actually an american-british-french project, directed by Oshima, about a married woman who falls in love with a monkey named Max. The psychological capacity of love between different species is explored here, not only on an emotional, but also on a scientific level, which makes it even more intriguing to see the husband, who by the way is keeping a woman on the side himself, go mad with jealousy and at the same time be a friend to his wife and help her take care of the chimp.
Sadly we never see the woman have sex with the animal - I guess mr. Oshima's erotical freedom is most exploited in "Senses" and goes back from there on. Interestingly enough all of these are the latest movies of Oshima - I guess I should take myself back to the earliest creations.

I finished my Oshima Week with Taboo, a movie about homosexual love, lust and passion amongst a samurai school in the military. The beauty of male jealousy, childlike love confession and cold rejection, murdering one's rival - all of that is given a whole new perspective through the male eye and especially through the military surroundings. Interestingly enough it is not allowed to borrow money and to dress in civil suit for a samurai, for this is a great shame and should be punished with self-disembowelment (harakiri or seppuku). About homosexuality, however, at least the code of the Shinsegumi says nothing.
A great watch, perhaps the best of Oshima's work I've seen so far, very tightly followed by "Realm".


From the above stated you would perhaps conclude that I have not been studying as I should be. You couldn't be more wrong! These days somehow just prove to be awesomely efficient for me.
Spring is knockin' on the door and warm rays of sun make a good fresh motivating start for a day.

:-)