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 |  You don't see it if you don't expect it, but you can see it from the corners of your eyes |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** An SEP field is a generated energy field which affects perception. Entities within the field will be perceived by an outside observer as "Somebody Else's Problem", and will therefore be effectively invisible unless the observer is specifically looking for the entity. from Wikipedia Douglas Adams invented the SEP in the third part of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Watch me squint. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
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| Do you still remember your New Year's resolutions? Have they survived the first week? I broke a record this year. At the end of the month, mine are still alive and well. The reason is probably that I followed up the very first resolution which was to write a "Dear Me" letter for the Official Contest. Just for the record, here it is:
One of the resolutions is to summarize at the last day of each month how I've been doing, and I think that one is the second reason why I actually worked on my plans. I know myself after all. I'm very good at making plans, less so at following through. That's not the worst point, though; it's a pretty common feature after all. But when I fall behind the plan, the failures loom larger than the achievements. The prospect of tallying what I've achieved was surprisingly motivating during January. So, here's the tally. Good news first: I fully achieved my reiviewing goals for January. 10 for the Angel Army, and 2 for INDEPTH. And I've fulfilled my new obligation with the Rising Stars. Three more reviews. Bad news: The short stories. At the beginning of January, I've dusted off an old story that I've always wanted to finish and decided on a complete rewrite in third person. But the time table I'm working on, and and and, I've written no more than 300 words. I will add my entry for the campfire into the tally; it's a full grown piece of flash fiction after all: 1000 words. I'm far behind my goal of 5000 words even if I add the one and a half articles on reviewing I created this month (+1500). At least they prove I haven't been completely idle. And it was a good excercise in style. But I had better give it some attention if that goal of 60 000 words in 2008 should still stay in reach. So let's make a follow up resolution for February: Enter one contest. Definitely. Okay? The Ventriloquist will be running for two month. That takes care of the last resolution. The next time will be in the second half of the year. All goes according to the plan. Thanks to some generous donations this month, I was able to raise the prizes, too.  Okay, that's the tally. It's a mixed bag, but still - way better than I did in the last years.  |
It's half a year that the contest took place, and I thought it was time for another round.
is up again. The new round will start on 1st of February. Take a look at the prompts, sharpen your pencils, and get the dummies moving. Looking forward to your entries! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Usually, I hate German movies. If they are humorous, they are embarrassingly shallow. The scripts aren't tight, the scenes take way too long, usually there's a real long shot of uninteresting landscape before the action starts. The dialogs suck. They are way too literary, nobody speaks that way. Even now, as there is a new generation of young directors who are quite successful, I remain unconvinced. You see the odd good one, but mostly I avoid watching German movies. Plus, now it all seems to be about the GDR, and I get easily overdosed with the look-what-it's-been-like movies. So, I wasn't hopeful when the The Lives of Others started. I've got an evening class, right now, teaching German politics and history for immigrants, and the GDR had been the topic for a few days, now. A colleage had gotten the movie for his class as a Friday night entertainment, and I took the chance to avoid jabbering for three hours. And the movie was great. Very good plot, terrific actors, a moving story. Gerd Wiesner, captain of the Stasi (secret police of the GDR) is assigned to spy out a playwright because the minister of culture fancies the writer's girl-friend and wants him out of the way. As Wiesner listens to their conversations and follows their life, he changes, and instead of denouncing the playwright he helps him. I don't want to put in any spoilers, so I won't tell more. (It's available on amazon and I would link it here if I could find the bloody number.) The movie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film last year. It's the kind of story I wish I will write one day. In a way, it reminded of Grahm Greene's Our Man in Havanna and John LeCarré's The Taylor of Panama because it's about fabricating intelligence, too. But it's darker than both books; it focuses more on morale. The story of the hero is strong and believable. He becomes a silent hero. His good deed is severely punished and never openly acknowledged. It's a deep character, too, and we found ourselves discussing his motives with the classes. To me, that is always a good sign when you skip the part about the plot being believable or not and go straight to the question about what kind of person the character is. And you buy his story, hook, line, and sinker. Even though the character is not realistic. It's doubtful that an officer of the Stasi would have helped his subjects of observation. The laws of the GDR were strict, and traitors weren't forgiven. Until the seventies, they were even executed for treason. But the way Gerd Wiesner acts shows the nature of the regime with more clarity than the documentaries about the victims of the GDR. So watch it. It's a great tale. |
Just wanted to post this in case you are interested.
mars  and I are going to do our workshop from 9th to 16th of March. I'm very much looking forward to it. I've been learning a lot about how to teach poetry now. There's a lot of creativity out there. Lot's of props to take the awe out of the form. It hasn't made me write a poem, though. |
| This morning I heard an intriguing piece of news. A burglar entered an apartment in a well to do district, rummaged through it and found the owner dead. What did he do? He called the police. It makes me wonder what went on in his head. Granted, he did want to make sure that he wasn't suspected to have killed the man, and he didn't wait out until the police arrived, but still. I mean he's a burglar, right? He wouldn't want the police on his trail. I understand that he was shocked to find the body. He could have left head over heels. I've got a feeling that something else is at play. I believe this man has a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. He would certainly justify his own crime, don't we all, but a dead man in an apartment is wrong. The funny thing is his instinct to call the police and the implication that they should do something about it. He wouldn't want the police do something about himself, or so I reason. Maybe, I'm being overly romantic. Maybe, the burglar was simply too excited to realize the smell or to have a closer look. Apparently, the dead man had been lying there for two weeks. The police never even suspected foul play. But I love the irony. |
There's a new star rising, and it's me. mars has offered to sponsor me, and GabriellaR45  sent me an invitation, yesterday. I am flattered and thankful. It's funny how it makes ou feel stronger at once when you get this support. And I've got a new sig to show off. Isn't it nice? ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| It appears that winter time is going to be busy. I've written my resolution letter, and all that should keep me busy enough, but Writing.Com wouldn't be the place it is if it didn't have any surprises in store. Last year, I entered kiyasama's "Letters of Life, Love & Hope"  . I donated a small port raid and then had a great time reviewing mars .Now, when the port raid ended, she asked me to co-host a workshop with her - on emotional poetry.  I'm laughing because I haven't written a poem, let alone an emotional one, since my Thank-God-long-gone, angst-ridden teenager years (oh, that's a lot of modifiers). Well, Maria thought I could contribute, and I thought of something my father used to say: "If you can, you must." I've always interpreted it in the way that if somebody thought I could do it, I should try.So, I'm planning to lead a workshop for the Rising Stars in March. The programme is fantastic, so I took the opportunity and signed up for another on character development. (I just love the way things lead to another, and thanks Maria for pushing me on.) And I'm still planning to keep my resolutions re:writing and reviewing. And blogging. |
| is paved with good intentions, and I bet many of them are new year resolutions. I once made the resolution not to make any resolutions anymore, and of course I broke it immediately. Today, I've done something even more wacky. I've made a resolution to make resolutions this year. That is I intend to enter
The point is, I do have plans and goals for 2008, but I've got a feeling they don't go together. I'd simply like to organize the commitments here on WdC for the following year. Or I'm going to drown. Have a Happy New Year, everybody! And don't make too many resolutions! Simply stay the way you are!  |
| So they killed her. I learned it only when I logged on this site and saw kiyasama's handle. I had gotten home only a few hours ago and hadn't gotten any news, yet. It makes me so angry. A suicide bomber. I imagine his friends crying some crocodile tears for their cowardly hero and feeling quite smug. The arrogance behind it. We know the way; who wills the end wills the means. I wish somebody would tell them that it's the means that show if the end is worthy or not. |
| In Germany, the children don't hang their stockings by the fire-place to be filled with gifts. The Weihnachtsmann either comes personally on Christmas Eve (in Berlin, it's often students who can be hired for that purpose), or he simply leaves the presents under the Christmas tree. So, the chimney doesn't have the same meaning in Christmas folklore. The chimney I want to talk about is a relict of a bread factory that occupied at a corner I'm passing every day. It has been torn down some time ago, and there are plans for a shopping mall to be built, but what you see now is a vacant lot with an industrial, landmarked chimney in the middle. Not very pretty. But it's decorated. At Christmas, Berlin becomes a lightmare. Every year, important buildings are chosen for stunning light shows. The main shopping streets brim over with light sculptures. My favorite decorations are fairy lights with tiny bulbs hung on every tree. They look like sparkling snow flakes. The chimney is not in the center. It's in a traditional working-class district, on the wrong side of the tracks. Somebody took the trouble to climb up and arrange fairy lights; now, chains of light-bulbs cover it like a loose net. For the first time, the chimney catches your attention, that is, if you approach it from the right angle in the dark. But it doesn't look seasonal. It looks like a giant phallus. I chuckle every time I pass it. Have a happy Christmas, all of you! Enjoy the season! I'm leaving today to celebrate with my family and will come back on 27th. |
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