I am
...getting rained on in Tokyo.
...old enough to drink alcohol but not old enough to know when to stop.
...blogging since 02/22/03.



Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Dinner
I ate a bowl of half-baked brownie goo (Sunday’s baking disaster) which had the consistency of peanut butter. It took two and a half glasses of milk to free my mouth of it. Science has a name for everything: Arachibutyrophobia - fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.


posted by Bunny at 8:20 PM





The claw
I'm unable to write. My handwriting looks like a cow would dance because I didn’t write anything by hand for the four weeks that I've been on vacation. Typing seems much more natural to an internet junkie. It's unfortunate that I have to handwrite my exams, they would be so much better if I could just type them, reshuffle words, phrases or whole paragraphs delete some again without leaving any traces. The reality: ink blotches, crossed-out words and arrows. It was even worse this morning when I dropped my pen a couple of times because I was falling asleep in the classes. Today's notes look like the pencil rage of a 3 year old. If four weeks can do that to my handwriting I don't want to know what happened to my piano playing. I haven't practiced for the last five years.


posted by Bunny at 5:47 PM



Tuesday, April 29, 2003

SARS
SARS is pronounced as if it's a word. Many abbreviations are used like a word that but most of the time they don't sound a gurgling sound a redneck would make... But I guess it's not the right to argue over the aesthetics of the word in times of panic and insecurity. From many media sources you might easily get the impression that SARS is the new AIDS/plague. I am still thinking that this is an overreaction but who can tell for sure?
But what clearly is an overreaction is what I experience here in Nottingham, UK. Mind you well, I'm neither talking about Hongkong, Toronto or Singapore. Since Easter vacation's over many people are scared that some of the many Chinese students at Nottingham University might have imported the virus. There's been a rumor about a case of SARS in Nottingham and some people started to flip out. There's someone running around with a mask, people are considering to fly home and a friend's father gave her the advice to keep clear from Chinese people. Great, after terrorism, more discriminatory profiling in people's minds. I still didn't find any news sources on the internet that confirmed the rumor.


posted by Bunny at 10:20 AM



Monday, April 28, 2003

Weird dream: The tennis court
I went to a tennis club with my future mother-in-law (which, by the way, only exists in the dream). The rental place was out of tennis rackets so they gave me an oversized wooden spoon to play tennis with and explained that they were out of the video manual for the spoon as well.


posted by Bunny at 9:39 AM



Sunday, April 27, 2003

Saturday slacker
Thanks to its free Day Pass I spent the entire day reading Salon.com. After reading a review of "The Ring" which illuminates some Freudian aspects of the movie, I spent the rest of the day enjoying the highly entertaining 52 episodes of Nancy Chan and the excerpts from the book based on this series. This should keep you busy for a day.


posted by Bunny at 12:45 PM



Saturday, April 26, 2003

But still not feeling up to studying
Even after a good night's sleep I felt a little bit sick but now that I've had cream of chicken soup and garlic bread for breakfast, I feel much better.


posted by Bunny at 11:27 AM



Friday, April 25, 2003

Feeling tired
The weather usually shows no respect for my moods. I'm often deeply depressed when the sun's shining. Today nature's making an exception and finally reflects my current state of weariness and exhaustion. Rain drizzles from the uniform gray sky. The daffodils on the campus lawn have already wilted. The weather is neither really hot or really cold but of an unlikable cool temperature. I'm in a sedated state of mind and lack any motivation to produce the academic achievements that are expected from me.
From a hedonistic point of view my life so far has been a failure. I have seldom lived much for pleasure except for a brief period of two years. Childhood as well as puberty had their traumata and now adulthood shows me its ugly face of responsibility and duty. Of course there are random interludes of happiness but to actively pursue happiness seems like a waste of energy as it normally has little effect on your well-being or unwell-being. Don't let the Dale Carnegies in the world fool you into believing that it's your fault that your life sucks.


posted by Bunny at 7:28 PM





Observations from the kitchen # 3
When I returned from the US, that’s what I had left in...
...my fridge:
  • ketchup
  • curry paste
  • Parmesan cheese
    ...my freezer:
  • 5 varieties of frozen vegetables
  • English minced beef
    On Tuesday I bought...
  • Diet coke
  • 1 cucumber
  • marinated chicken breasts
    NB: The cucumber is for a salad. I'm not using it for anything else.


    posted by Bunny at 10:58 AM



  • Thursday, April 24, 2003

    Epiphany of the day
    If you watch a face long enough, it will look asymmetric and misshapen no matter how pretty the person is.


    posted by Bunny at 4:25 PM





    Countdown
    There's an hour left before I have to print my essay. If you believe that quality correlates with the time you spend on writing an essay, I simply should delete it and start over again. I guess it would help if I'd sleep with the teacher but as there are three different ones teaching this class, I am not sure which one will grade it. Besides, they're not the people that you'd want to sleep with. One of them is cute in an asexual way, the second lecturer is chubby and has an annoying accent when he talks English and the third one is too old and has a bad taste when it comes to neckties. So there's nothing left but to have faith in my academic writing skills.
    [meditative pause to let the last statement sink in]
    Oh god, I doomed.


    posted by Bunny at 12:31 PM



    Wednesday, April 23, 2003

    Pressure makes diamonds....and garbage more compact
    Last night I remembered that I have to write an essay for my International Trade class. It's due tomorrow which leaves me 22 hours to finish it.


    posted by Bunny at 4:04 PM



    Tuesday, April 22, 2003

    Another flight
    I asked for an aisle seat but there were none left. However the nice lady at the counter typed into the computer that I would like one if any aisle seat freed up. This never happened. I had a window seat. The guy next to me used the whole armrest between us which was a little bit inconvenient for as the remote control for my screen was built in it....This wasn't so bad, I was still able to watch sappy romantic comedies I'd never pay movie money for.
    What really bothered me was the guy's breath. It wasn't the type of real certified bad breath but it was quite unbearable for me. I guess this has to do with pheromones or stuff. It got worse when he fell asleep and breathed through his mouth. I survived by sniffing the perfume samples in my Cosmopolitan during the whole flight.


    posted by Bunny at 7:47 PM



    Monday, April 21, 2003

    Back to England
    Vacation's over. I will bring brownie mix and Lucky Charms for the last month in Nottingham. It feels so surreal to come back after a whole month of vacation but I am looking forward to being online for 20 hours a day again. I've caught a cold. I hope can suppress any coughs or sneezes on the airplane or they will quarantine me and check for SARS.


    posted by Bunny at 8:09 PM





    Happy Easter
    ...or whatever "Winter is over and tanning season has started"-holiday you are celebrating.


    posted by Bunny at 3:26 AM



    Sunday, April 20, 2003

    Weird dream: The dog girl
    I passed a German shepherd kept in a big water tank. Then I watched a documentary on an attempt to turn animals anthropomorphic in the seventies. It turned out that the German shepherd in the water tank had once been one of them. She once had been the mascot of a high school marching band. Then they tried to educate her like a kid. The documentary showed one scene where she really looked like a girl just with dog ears and a snout. However they were never able to teach her to talk English properly and she was glad to return to her former state of dogness.


    posted by Bunny at 2:36 AM





    TS hears strangers at the window
    She: I don't want to pull his neck.
    He: Then let's hang him.
    They bid farewell by telling each other "Die happy."


    posted by Bunny at 2:36 AM



    Saturday, April 19, 2003

    Unsettling experience of the day
    Someone made popcorn today. The faint odor of popcorn lingers in the kitchen. Why does it smell like sperm?


    posted by Bunny at 7:10 AM





    The Non-Expert
    If the question 'What would it take for you to have a three-way with me?' ever popped into your mind, Maggie has the answer.


    posted by Bunny at 6:51 AM



    Friday, April 18, 2003

    Group work assignments
    I hate group work assignments. The problem is that most of the times you find out that all the smart people have already groups and that you're stuck with the least motivated and most uninspired people of the class. When the workload is divided between everyone you decide that you're going to do all the hard work because the easy tasks are probably hard enough for your group. When you meet to put all the unrelated bits of information together you find out that most of the people haven't done their work yet.
    Girl X: Sorry that I haven't finished the bibliography yet because it took me so long to type it. I spent two hours yesterday on it.
    Me: You just had to paste and copy from another word document with all the articles in it. How can that take so long?
    Girl X: Err, right.... I'll go to the computer lab to finish it...

    Later that day a friend of mine heard me complaining about Girl X.
    Friend: Oh, I've seen her in the computer lab. She asked me how to do "copy and paste".
    Me: Argh.
    Friend: And then she asked me how she could get rid of the bold writing.
    Me: Doesn't she know anything about word processing? [Pause] You'd think that she had to deal with Word sometime during the four years she's already been at university....


    posted by Bunny at 5:31 AM



    Thursday, April 17, 2003

    Weird dream: Cannelloni heart
    I had a heart made out of cannelloni stuffed with ricotta cheese. Someone took the cannelloni and ate it. When he realized that it had been my heart he substituted it with a box in which he had trapped the voice of my mother so that I would survive.


    posted by Bunny at 9:10 PM





    Get a wife
    Google search results of my name: I found a site of Vietnamese women looking for a "good-looking foreign husband who no smoking, no drinking and no playing cards". This implies that Vietnamese men are ugly, smokers, drunks and gamblers (which might be true... my mother is excellent at explaining why I shouldn't get a Vietnamese husband). I wonder whether their hopes of a better life will be fulfilled with the kind of guy who actually considers getting a docile Asian wife via internet.


    posted by Bunny at 7:57 AM



    Tuesday, April 15, 2003

    It's all about brains
    This is delicious.
    It reminds me of this: We don't understand how the human brain really works but we know how the brain of a fly works. However, if we had the brain of a fly, we'd be too stupid to understand it.


    posted by Bunny at 9:38 PM



    Monday, April 14, 2003

    Childhood book revisited
    By reading "A little princess" by Burnett in English yesterday I learned that "ejaculate" can be used as a synonym for "exclaim" if you're an Englishman from the 19th century.


    posted by Bunny at 10:43 PM





    Collected fortune cookies wisdom
  • He likes to flirt, but toward you his intentions are honorable.
  • Good health will be yours for a long time.
  • You will be fortunate in the opportunities presented to you.
  • The light of a hundred stars does not equal the light of the moon.
  • You are deeply attached to your family and home.
  • A cheerful letter or message is on its way to you.
  • Watch your relations with other people carefully, be reserved.
  • You have loyal friends who will protect you and your name when need arises.
  • You will spend old age in comfort and material wealth.
  • You and your wife will be happy in your life together.
  • Sell your ideas - they are totally acceptable.
  • The luck that is ordained for you will be coveted by others.
  • There is a true and sincere friendship between you both.
  • You will be unusually successful in business.
  • Luck is coming your way.
  • The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
  • Serious trouble will bypass you.
  • Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.
  • You will always have good luck in your personal affairs.
  • The time is right to make new friends.
  • You will have good luck and overcome many hardships.
  • Life to you is a dashing and bold adventure.
  • You will soon meet a person who will play an important role in your life.

    We ate a lot of fortune cookies over the last three weeks. I need a break from Chinese food.


    posted by Bunny at 4:10 AM



  • Sunday, April 13, 2003

    Flatmate conversation
    BH: Are you guys going to cook lunch now?
    Me: No, we're not!
    TS: B, do the washing up! Then you can cook for yourself, I'm not going to do that for you!
    BH [to TS]: I don't want you to cook, I want Annie to cook! My dog can cook better than you. And he is DEAD!


    posted by Bunny at 4:02 AM



    Saturday, April 12, 2003

    Trip back to childhood
    While I type, I'm wearing the embarrassing little paper hat that Amanda (the jelly belly tour guide) had given us (NO, TS and me) before the tour started.
    Today we stole borrowed Bill's car and went to Fairfax to visit the Budweiser Factory Jelly Belly Factory. We took pictures in front of a giant Jelly Belly with rabbit ears, went on the free tour, bought more than six pounds of Jelly Bellys and ate hamburgers that were shaped like a jelly bean. I ate lots of sugar, too, and had a jawbreaker (diameter:2") stuck in my mouth for half an hour before it decided to dissolve. I still can't believe that America's favorite Jelly Belly flavor is Buttered Popcorn...ugh.
    Half an hour has passed since I typed the first sentence of this post. I'm still wearing this paper hat. I either look like a dorky stewardess or a soda fountain waiter from the 50's.


    posted by Bunny at 6:24 AM



    Friday, April 11, 2003

    Barter deal
    A guy talks to some teenage kids hanging out.
    "Hey, does anyone have a cigarette? I have cookies... If you give me a cigarette, I'll give you a cookie... They're really good."


    posted by Bunny at 6:38 AM



    Thursday, April 10, 2003

    Crazy but true
    My business school is considering the following project: a houseboat (three decks, capacity: 100 people) for freshmen and foreign students on the Rhine in order to meet the demand for student appartments in the Rheingau area.


    posted by Bunny at 5:40 AM





    Weird dream: the musical dream
    I don't remember much but it was about some sort of "West Side Story" lovestory involving gay people which complicated everything. They had to fight for the peer group's approval as well as the consent of the Asian parents of the one character. In the end everybody was happy and danced in a Cambodian restaurant.


    posted by Bunny at 3:07 AM



    Wednesday, April 09, 2003

    100 flavors
    Jelly beans and chips have a lot in common. They come in so many flavors that you wonder why a food has to pretend so desperately it is something else. Is being a chip or a jelly bean in itself not fulfilling enough? Probably not.
    I like the idea that I am not eating jelly beans or chips but something totally different. This masquerade of flavors is very enjoyable and I happily play along:
    "This jelly belly really tastes like artificial butter!"
    "Oh my, the smell of these chips just remind me of burritos, how delightful."
    I probably have given up on the fact that there's a "real thing". It is so much easier to go to the candy and chips aisle of the supermarket.


    posted by Bunny at 2:04 AM



    Tuesday, April 08, 2003

    Google.fr
    Somebody found my site on the French version of Google by typing in: Bikinis+ado. As ado is short for adolescent(e) which means teenager, I guess he was kinda disappointed when he found that there were no well-equipped bikini girls anywhere on my blog. Desolée, buddy!


    posted by Bunny at 5:25 AM



    Monday, April 07, 2003

    Why I didn't go out yesterday
    I spent the whole evening reading True Porn Clerk Stories and laughed my head off until my boy-friend was too tired of waiting for us to spend quality time together and went to bed.


    posted by Bunny at 2:55 AM





    Martial hamsters
    Let's get the kids into the mood for war! Walgreens sells Dancing Hamsters. You can choose between GI hamster, airforce hamster, sailor hamster and admiral hamster. All dance to a military tune.



    posted by Bunny at 2:08 AM



    Sunday, April 06, 2003

    North Beach Pizzeria
    We had the nicest gay waiter today. His name was Carlos and he's been living in California for fifteen years.
    Carlos: Where are you from?
    Me: Germany.
    Carlos: Oh, Germany, that's beautiful!
    Me: Thank you.
    Carlos: Are you on your honeymoon?
    TS: No, no.
    Carlos [winking]: Well, then make it your honeymoon, sweethearts!
    ---
    Carlos: I always lie about my name, my age and how long the pizza takes.
    ---
    Carlos: Did he give you a mint?
    Me: Yes.
    Carlos: And did he open the wrapper for you?
    Me [laughing]: No.
    Carlos [to my boy-friend]: Shame on you! A guy should always be a gentleman.
    Me [still laughing]: As a feminist, I probably would have slapped him if he'd tried that.
    Carlos: Way to go, girl, gimme five!


    posted by Bunny at 6:31 AM



    Saturday, April 05, 2003

    Kids are sooo innocent
    A friend of mine recently told me a "When I was a kid"- story: He and his friends once decided to eat some wild duck. So they caught one and twisted its neck. Then they plucked and gutted the duck. It was roasted on a stick over a fire in the woods.
    That's why I want to have a daughter.


    posted by Bunny at 7:06 AM



    Friday, April 04, 2003

    The Importance of Being Blonde
    BH wants to be blonde. Alas, half of his genes are Asian which means that BH's hair is raven black.
    When his flatmate gets some bleach, he finally gets the chance to become the blond god that he's destined to be. He impatiently sets an end to the pleasant anticipation of flaxen hair by washing off the peroxides before half an hour has passed. The result is an unfortunate one: a color that is commonly known as orange.
    A victim of ridicule and mockery, he tries to solace himself by spreading the rumor that he actually had to change his hair color in order to do a modeling job. He buys "# 3 - natural black" hair dye to restore his old self. Sadly, the "natural" black doesn't look as natural as he's hoped so that BH now looks like he's wearing a black wig.


    posted by Bunny at 12:23 AM



    Thursday, April 03, 2003

    Vietnamese customs
    When I was in Vietnam some years ago it struck me how German I was even though my roots lie within this country. There were many things that I wasn't accustomed to, for example that people assumed I was more stupid then they were only because I was younger or their way of showing hospitality which I felt was very pushy. Whenever we would have dinner, my relatives would put pieces of food into my bowl without asking me. Of course, this is appropriate in a culture where a guest would never dare to take seconds even if he's invited to do so by the host. However, I personally felt being patronized even though they meant well.
    Yesterday TS, BH and I went out to eat in a Vietnamese restaurant and we ordered Pho. The typical plate of bean sprouts, lime wedges, basil leaves, and jalapeno slices arrived with our bowls. And as TS and BH were not familiar with the process of eating Pho, I just started to squeeze the lemon juice into my boy-friend's bowl and fill it up with the herbs and sprouts. Suddenly I realized that I was behaving exactly like my Vietnamese relatives. Patronizing feels so much better when you're not on the receiving end.


    posted by Bunny at 12:52 AM



    Wednesday, April 02, 2003

    The taste of a woman
    After testing your abilities of spotting whether somebody is Korean, Japanese or Chinese on ALL LOOK SAME please proceed by reading Ms. Wu's post on the taste of Durian fruits.


    posted by Bunny at 12:58 AM



    Tuesday, April 01, 2003

    American breakfast
    American sports bars have spread throughout German major cities so that you can get your real American BBQ burger, curly fries and milkshake outside of the US. But these restaurants can't fill my need for American cereals. Normally my breakfast consists of a cigarette and a can of diet coke. In the US however there are far too many options I can't resist. Supermarkets offer an assortment of at least 200 different cereals, each with a different artificial flavor (honey, cinnamon, maple syrup, apple, to name a few) . Sometimes I'm tempted to eat a bowl of mini Oreo cookies with milk, that probably would also count as cereals. Muffins, scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, French toast and pancakes with maple syrup are nice, too, but they never induce the same craving as cereals do.


    posted by Bunny at 1:38 AM


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