This above all: To Thine Own Self Be True

Tell me a secret.
and/or
Ask me a question.


Yes, it's Sunday evening and I'm bored.

Only you, yes, you, can help.


Anonymous comments enabled, IP logging off.

Zaz: new autumn layout.

Is it just my "Update Journal" button that flees when threatened to be clicked?

Since the upcoming US elections are The Topic on my friends list today, understandably, I have a question:

I'm still not entirely clear about your voting system.

Here, you have to inform the local authorities of your address (well, your parents tell them about your existence at birth and then you have to tell them about any changes of address when you move), and if you are over 18 and there are elections ahead, you will be sent a document that you have to bring to the voting booth, along with your passport or national id card (which we are required to own). If you already know you will not be in your home town on the day of the election, you can get a ballot that you can send in by mail.

So could somebody explain to me the process of registering to vote? I was surprised to see that you were able to register to vote even here, on German streets, if you were American and happened to walk out of Berlin's Sony center during the last couple of months. So obviously it's different from German bureaucratic routines.

Also, it has often been mentioned in the news that during the last elections, many US citizens were denied the right to vote. This seems strangely undemocratic to me, but I'm just an outsider - could somebody explain me who exactly is allowed to vote?

All the web sites I've found so far didn't really explain this to me, and I thought that with so many Americans on my friends list, it would be so much easier to ask here. Yay for the internet!

:)

I had the secret hope that forcing myself to write would eventually make me want to write.
(I also hope this will one day work with the thesis, which does, in some form, exist already, just not on paper.)

I've found myself in a very anti-Berlin phase lately, which, I've been told, most inhabitants go through regularly, more often when you live in potentially irritating neighborhoods like Friedrichshain. What one day seems alive and creative can look very dirty and messy the next, and the way people dress looks sometimes stylish and interesting, sometimes pretentious and unflattering.

I realized in Kiel, a city that certainly has its sleazy, unpleasant parts, that many of the drunk men hanging out around the train station had the same standards of hygiene as many of the average 'alternative' inhabitants of Friedrichshain (so I'd rather not go into the smell emanating from some sub-average people on the streets here), and even though Northern Germany certainly isn't famous for the charm and warmth of its natives, Berlinern invariably sounds rude. (And I have been told repeatedly that I've sort of adopted the tone. It gets heavier when I'm with people who speak heavy dialect, and that's fine, but I don't want to sound unfriendly to people who do not think this is a normal level of agression in everyday communication).

And I'm also fed up with self-proclaimed hipsters who seem to get off on the thought that they are in Berlin! in a cool café on Simon-Dach-Straße! and have the right haircut! and clothes! and shoes!, only that those facts alone do not make them interesting people, which, then again, does not matter, because they would not speak to people who do not match their "individual" dress code.


So I urgently need to focus on the charming aspects of Berlin.
For now, I present you:

guerrilla gardening
which is quite common in F'hain - it's a typical East Berlin part of town, where some of the gaps from the WWII bombings and following 50 years of architectural neglect still haven't been filled. So people put up signs and claim the unused space as public gardening zones, and build benches and flower beds and playgrounds and invite everybody to participate.

And there is the cute corner store across my house, which is cool because the owners bring some Arabic-Mediterranean flair by sitting on stools outside the shop whenever there is even just a trace of sunlight, and who have gone through all sorts of trouble to turn the dirt around a tree into their own little garden.
Those holes in the pavement are usually just canine toilets, and for a while, they hung a roll of toilet paper from the tree trunk to inspire the dog owners to at least clean up after their darlings. Since that had little effect, they looked into fences, which, under the permanent attack of urban housepet's feces, had to be renewed repeatedly. But once the spot had been accepted by most as non-sanitary grounds, it really turned into a flowerbed, sometimes even adorned, while the shop is opened, with little garden gnomes that smile up to my kitchen window.




And then there is
post-graffitti
Tags are boring, and spraying a really artistic form graffitti to walls takes time, thus increasing the chances to get caught, and maybe sticking paper to walls is even actually legal, and, in any case, it simply looks really cool. Especially on rotting walls that would otherwise be quite depressing. There seem to be numerous artists. One day I'll need to walk around and look for more, those are just the ones I happened to walk by a few days ago.

Dear men.
In order to make the life of countless women easier:
you may be one of the greatest males to walk this planet, and still it is possible that there are a few women out there who will be blind to your smiles and deaf to your charm. That, however, does not mean they can't still be polite and respectful and even quite friendly to you. But a word and a smile is not a promise.

Not all forms of standard interaction between males and females can be considered a sign of reciprocated romantic interest. In this culture, it is perfectly accepted to hang out, talk, see movies, or have a drink with members of the opposite sex without these activities being just a pretty disguise for a marriage (or relationship) proposal. So if a woman agrees to meet you, you cannot deduce automatically that within a matter of days, your singledom will end.

And if you do meet, and she talks all night, you should take into consideration that she might just feel the need to fill the silence. Maybe she's so desperate that she thinks that listening to herself talk is the only way of keeping her brain alive. If she found you fascinating, she'd probably feel like asking you a question occasionally, if you are the silent type. And she'd bother to listen to the reply, too.
Just keep that in mind.
Also, interrogations are not a charming form of conversation. She already knows all the answers. she's likely to be bored.

Generally, you can assume that if things go well, you will be able to see some kind of balance. Even shy women will eventually show some kind of positive response. If she declines numerous offers to meet, and never comes up with any suggestions herself, you should not ignore the possibility that she simply does not want to meet you.

Just consider it. Don't just ask more often. Don't call to make sure she got the text message in which you asked if she got your email.

You see, that puts her into an uncomfortable position. She may still think you are a nice guy, so she would not want to hurt your feelings by telling you directly that she is not interested in spending time with you. Maybe she'd like to keep your self-confidence intact by not dealing out a direct blow. After all, you might make some other woman very happy, and she's probably interested in you doing that soon.

'No' does not mean 'yes' when said by a woman. And too many nos form a very clear picture. Face it.

The necessity of this entry became unpleasantly obvious during a phone call between A., afraid of picking up her phone and with a guilty conscience because of ignored opera tickets, and K., who deals with the nightmare of having her admirer live right across the yard, so unless she keeps her curtains closed or spends all day in the bathroom, he can observe every single room of her apartment.

I can't believe how insultingly bad The Matrix: Revolutions is.
That's all.
To say more would mean wasting even more time on it.