Author Archives: evamaria

Categories and linkage

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I organized my entries into categories – if I don’t do it now, while the blog is still pretty small (43 entries, I think), I’ll never do it and it’ll all be a big ole mess… It always amazes me what kind of patience I have for nitpicky things like this – I wish I was this conscientious about my uni stuff! 🙂

Also, I got a reciprocal link from Random Perspective, together with compliments for this here thing. Heh, that makes me inordinately happy, because that site (and, hence, the guy behind it) kicks ass. Go me! *g*

And this has been entry #3 for today – I’m pretty sure that’s a record for this blog. But don’t think that this is going to be a habit! 🙂

Meme time

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Thanks to Patty from VanillaMist I’ve found a couple of interesting looking memes that I might participate in now and then…

So here are my first answers to Saturday Senses:
[sight]:: cloudy skies
The view from my room on a summer evening, the sun going slowly down, coloring the sky in warm colors, with clouds like an impressionistic painting.

[taste]:: hot chocolate
A cold winter’s day, outside in the mountains, taking a break from skiing. My hands wrap around the hot cup and I take the first smell of chocolate before taking a spoon and slowly starting to eat liquid warmth and comfort as if it was soup.

[smell]:: baking cookies
My mom sometime before Christmas. She’s making her almond cookies with my grandmother’s recipe, making sure there are enough to last until my birthday, 12 days after Christmas.

[touch]:: being wrapped in a blanket
Sitting in front of the fireplace, watching the flames and talking comfortably, feeling very relaxed and at home.

[hearing]:: rain outside
Waking up in a summer night to hear the rain pound against my window, making it rattle and shake while I’m in my comfortable bed. Getting up to open the blinds a bit to allow cool, fresh air to enter my room.

And here are my first Unconscious Mutterings:

  1. Wizard of Oz:: Kansas
  2. Ford:: the yellow car my dad owned and that we used to drive to our summer vacation with, when I was little all the way from Northern Germany to Switzerland
  3. Wrinkles:: the lines on my dad’s forehead and around my mother’s eyes
  4. Extravagant:: expensive
  5. Conventional:: is usually underrated
  6. Stewart:: the Steelso
  7. Offensive:: aggressive people
  8. Heartbeat:: reassurance
  9. Chaos:: my book shelves
  10. Jiffy:: Oi, sometimes I notice that I’m not English…

This was fun! Think I’ll definitely do this again!

Open-air report

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Impossible to share everything I have experienced and seen in those three days – it’s a whirlwind of impressions, music, people, sun, too many to count them or list them here.

There were so many different bands there – I think that’s what will stay with me the most. I got to hear music I’d never have been exposed to otherwise, since Sibylle and I managed to hear almost everyone who performed.

All acts:
Smartship Friday, Patrice*, Asian Dub Foundation*, Die Fantastischen Vier*, Open Season, The Skatalites*, Orishas*, Lovebugs*, Tricky, Saybia, Hell Is For Heroes*, Skin*, Starsailor*, Massive Attack*, Greis & Friends, Saïan Supa Crew*, Adrian Weyermann*, Moloko*, Farin Urlaub Racing Team*, Röyksopp*, Shirley Grimes*, Anouk*, Jimmy Cliff*, Alanis Morissette*, Stress & Band*, Danko Jones*, Absolute Beginner*, Earth, Wind & Fire, Elvis Spectacular*
(*heard)

For most acts we simply sat somewhere in the grass (whenever possible in the shade, because all three days the weather was amazing – and way too hot), relaxed and listened, but for some we went into the crowd and partied.

Those we saw in the crowd (pictures thanks to studiSurf.ch:

Lovebugs – the most famous band from Basel


Skin’s was by far our favorite performance – she totally blew us away! I loved how she wasn’t afraid at all of getting in touch with her fans, and she kept the right balance between joking with us (and flirting outrageously with us girls *g*) and making great music. Have decided to become a fan and get her album! 🙂


I’d been looking forward to Moloko’s performance – but after Skin we were just so exhausted that we left the crowd for a shady spot soon after they started their set.


I wasn’t so sure about Massive Attack at first (“TripHop – what the heck is TripHop?”), but it was a great latenight performance. If only my back hadn’t hurt so bad – but I did make it to the end!


Anouk was someone I’d been looking forward to hearing, because I had a feeling that I’d like it – and I sure did! Sibylle and I both rocked to her sound and I’ll definitely get her CD from the library to hear more.


Alanis’ performance was the last one of the festival and one of the highpoints. She doesn’t interact with the fans much, but her music is so great she doesn’t have to! I think every woman needs to own “Jagged Little Pill” for angry times – and listening to the crowd (including myself, of course) screaming and singing along, I think every woman does… 🙂

Not so great was the sheer mass of people – 45 000 meant that it was simply too crowded, specially when you were looking for a shady spot, and I was very disappointed when The Cardigans couldn’t come due to a car accident in Germany. But by far the worst was that the campsite was booked out, so that our tent was on the side of a hill, surrounded by teenies that were loud, obnoxious and generally made for two horrible nights.

After the first night we were glad to leave the festival grounds and go into Bern for some grocery shopping (we lived off bread and fruits, basically) and wonderful quiet time at the river Aare. But really, it was an amazing experience, and I can easily imagine going again – although then I might look into alternative sleeping arrangements… 🙂

The joy of packing

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Cindy is leaving for the US tomorrow, the lucky girl!

I for my part am getting the stuff together that I’ll take to the three-day-open-air. Will take the bare minimum and slum it for that time (or, you know, not, if I know me *g*).

Things to pack:
– sleeping bag
– tent
– 2 panties
– 1 pair of socks
– 1 t-shirt and bermudas to sleep in
– 1 rain jacket
– 1 tank top
– essential toiletries (tooth brush, soap, contact lense stuff, sun protection, pain killers, insect-repellant – I feel so decadent listing all of this… *g*)
– 1 small towel
– 1 sun hat
– sun glasses
– ear plugs
– 1 book (because I don’t go anywhere without one)
– food and drink (to be bought tomorrow morning)

Will wear:
– khaki pants
– t-shirt
– woollen jacket
– walking sandals

Won’t take:
– my camera (because I really don’t feel like carrying it with me everywhere for fear of it being stolen)

I think that covers the basics. Tell me if there’s something essential missing!

Oh, almost forgot:
– 1 lock for the tent, so people won’t use it as a toilet

Breathing

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I had just changed and was trying to figure out if I should take my bike or the tram to the city to meet Regina, when all of a sudden it started to rain. Real rain, not the drizzling it’s been doing all day long – the kind of rain that makes the earth breathe with relief. The kind of rain that makes me want to run outside and dance in it.

With regards to my pretty clothes I didn’t – but I did stand out on the balcony and took a quick rainshower.

It’s almost stopped again already, at least for the moment, but the horizon is bright with the last rays of the sun and everything seems just a bit greener, as if it’s been washed…

Procrastination

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Since summer break has started I’ve been exercising the art of procrastination with zeal.

I just can’t help it, as I have no clue how to fill the 20 pages required in my paper (to which I always refer to as “that darn paper”, short “tdp”). I’ve never been so clueless and helpless and generally unwilling to even give it a try. Only, of course, I don’t really have a choice. Therefore I have resolved to “bite into the sour apple” (=German proverb) and at least try to get something on paper this afternoon.

Hopefully I can turn this into some kind of routine – mornings spend online or doing whatever, afternoons either writing the paper or reading for New Zealand. Admittedly, the latter seems much more tempting, since I’m actually interested in the subject… 🙂

Enough whining.

What did I do instead of writing on tdp? I finished the layout overhaul here, fitting the archives into the theme, for one thing. I also integrated the travel log into the site, and created a new layout for my LiveJournal. Oh, and there’s now a cute Weatherpixie on the woman page, as well as a picture of my best friend Sibylle.

All in all I’ve been playing around with html – I’m getting better and better at adapting the code to my needs.

In not web-related news, I’ve been looking for things to take to NZ as a way of thanks. Not always easy to find things that aren’t horribly cheesy or totally useless… And then there’s the question of how I’ll manage to fit all the gifts plue everything I need for two months into one backpack and one handluggage suitcase. If only I didn’t have to take winter shoes…

But see, I’m whining again. Bad habit, should stop it immediately. 🙂

Much better to look forward to this weekend – a three day open-air near Bern, starring people like Alanis Morissette, Skin, The Cardigans, and many more. My first big open-air concert, with Sibylle – and a tent. As much as I complain about the heat, I still hope that it holds until next Monday.

Because, camping in rain and mud? Not my idea of fun, at all!

Wish I’d had my camera

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Spent about three hours at the Rhine, together with Sibylle. Was absolutely lovely, it really felt like vacation, which is just right, because summer break started today. No classes until October, although of course other stuff has to be done.

But, back to the Rhine… Sibylle went swimming, and I sat in the shadow of a willow tree, with my feet in the cool, clear water, reading (well, it was “Methods and Techniques of Field Research” – but it was reading) and enjoying the afternoon sun. Beautiful, simply beautiful – one of those afternoons to be treasured in memory for other times, when they bring back the sparkle, the warmth of the sun on water and good company…

Not that a photo can capture those moments, but at least I would have liked to try.

New layout for Independent Love Song\

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Because I found so many pretty layouts in my hunt last week I decided to overhaul Independent Love Song as well. Was quite a bit of work because my personal site may not be updated often, but it sure has a lot of pages…

Isn’t it pretty now? 🙂

This afternoon I’ll try to come up with a concept for my Salome paper. I don’t want to write it, the whole thing has gone sour — I don’t like having to force myself to write something for the teacher instead of for myself. This will be the hardest paper I’ve ever written — I don’t have any ideas and will probably have to fight for every single sentence. 20 pages seems like a lot, suddenly, while normally I always have too much material and ideas. *sigh*

But it can’t be helped, the stupid thing has to be written in the next four weeks.

Created a study journal

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For my fieldtrip exercise to New Zealand I had the idea of creating a journal for all the notes taken during the time. It seems to me, as if that way I’ll manage to keep everything in order, nicely in one place and with different categories — much better than emailing myself stuff to work with at home or printing it and using up tons of paper.

I called it he korero mai ra Aotearoa, which (according to my dictionary) means something like “notes from New Zealand”. At least I hope so! 🙂

Done!

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Changed the layout for the domain, woman, and learning pages as well – now only the travel log is missing, and that’s going to be a bit more complicated, because it’s on LiveJournal.

But no matter — what do you think? I personally am pretty happy with it — it reminds me of New Zealand for some reason and is therefore perfect for this summer…

Staying in tonight, still a bit groggy from Thursday’s headache of hell (let me tell you — if I start having migraines, I’ll get pissy…) and have to work tomorrow morning. So couch potato it is… 🙂