This Is For Lovers Running Away

Let's keep this short'n'sweet. I'm Jess, and this is my pop culture blog. Feel free to contribute. All spammer comments end up in the bin. Enjoy!

Monday, August 27, 2007

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

(WCW)


And this post is just to say that this blog is not actuallt dead! In the meantime, analyse the poem. :P

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Bloggedy bloggedy boo

Long time no see. Will post again soon I hope. In the meantime, why don't you listen to some music?


Sunday, July 16, 2006

Petition (please sign)

You may have heard about Israel's recent attacks on the Lebanon, they've killed quite a high number of civilians so far and they are not likely to stop in the near future.
You never know how useful a petition is and if it has any effect at all, but signing this petition is certainly better than doing nothing and just ignoring the news.

Please sign this petition and try to help save Lebanese civilians:

Sign me

This does not go against the people of Israel, it is merely an attempt to undermine the recent attacks.

Friday, June 30, 2006

5:3 for Deutschland's patriotism

If you got television, you probably know what I'm talking about. What a tense game!

During the first half I thought Germany didn't deserve to win, Argentina were definitely better, especially their technique. But the fact that the 1:0 didn't keep the Germans from trying (and scoring!) only speaks for the sauerkrauties.
The consequences? Us Germans have actually developed a kind of patriotism. These days (I mean before the world cup) there's nothing more UNgerman than patriotism. Americans, for instance, love their flag. We don't care about ours at all. Nor about anybody else's flags for that matter.
But in the past few weeks hosting and taking part in the world cup gave the Germans the opportunity to rediscover their identity. They've moved away from 'I'm German, I hope you don't mind' to 'I'm German, and that's quite cool actually'. The industry can't cope with the demand for German flags during the world cup because everybody wants to celebrate their country/their team/their nationality. This may not seem unusual to you, esp. if you're not German. Certainly, the Germans have always supported their team. Even so, they've never done it to this extent. Moreover, they are now celebrating themselves, as the fans of the German team, as the world cup hosts, and - most of all - as Germans.
The question is whether this will be over in an instant after the world cup. Time will tell, but for now it's just nice to see Germans actually being happy about who they are. They're not everybody's darling in Europe, but it is they themselves who are their greatest critics.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Nastiness for the win

or... 'an interesting mor(n)ing for cheesecake'

this morning a girl came to our house, the fact that I didn't know her and her question as to whether I had 2 mins to spare already alarmed me. but it only seemed to be a survey, namely about drug addicts, whether they should be given a second chance, how many people I think backslide after a therapy and so on. so far, so good!
I said drug addicts should be given a second chance if they show they are willing to work on themselves. then, said girl told me she used to take drugs and that she's part of a kind of 'trust' programme (alarm bells ringing... not MY money!!!). This programme evolves around certain procedures, e.g. that she collects trust points. She goes from house to house and talks to people, does the survey I mentioned above etc. Then, three days later or so, her tutor calls those people and asks them if she was really there and talked to them about the programme yadda yadda yadda ...
Of course, they need your address for this. So you sign a sheet of paper and you're supposed to suscribe to a magazine for a limited period of time. The number of trust points depends on the magazine. She showed me a list of trust points and prices...
I told her I don't earn any money and I might go abroad so I'm not interested in a subscription, and I certainly won't give her my account details. She said it's not problem (excuse my neglect of reported speech forms), I could just sign it pretending to want a subscription and then call them telling them I can't pay, i.e. cancel it again. I wouldn't have to pay a thing and she'd still get her trust points. Hooray!
Stupid as I was and still looking for my good deed of the day, I chose a magazine and signed. She seemed very sincere and tbh she looked a bit like a former drug addict! I didn't give her my account details, but it was still a sort of subscription with my name etc. The contact details of her organisation were on the sheet of paper, a copy of which I kept. She seemed very happy, thanked me and wished me good luck, and I wished her good luck with the others.
Despite my naive behaviour in this scene, I decided to google her organisation. And what's the first thing I get? Forum links, many of them, with reports about people pretending to be drug addicts to coax you into subscribing for magazines etc. Basically, all the links said how convincing these people were, how plausible their stories are and how so many people actually signed up because they wanted to help.
Having read this, I grabbed my shoes and the keys and went outside. I was determined to find this girl, she couldn't have been very far yet...
And indeed, after about a minute she was back on the sidewalk, apparently thinking about her next victim. She was walking past a car when she saw me. She didn't really seem to be alarmed, she merely asked whether that was my car (probably saw my keys). I said no, and I asked her whether I could see that sheet of paper once more. She looked puzzled, saying I got my own copy with the very same details on it. Nevertheless, she produced her version from a pocket in her jeans. I took it and pretended to be reading what it said once more. Once I was sure she wouldn't take it from me right away, I said: I googled you.
"You did what?" (google is an English word, it's an Anglicism in our language and not many people know it yet I suppose)
I said I found out they're frauds and that she wouldn't get this sheet of paper back.
Now she looked desperate: "I need this for my tutor, I won't get the trust points otherwise!"
I think she believes this story herself. She must have told this story so often that it has become real to her. At least she didn't look like she was acting.
I said I don't believe a word she says anymore and that I think it's terrible what they are doing. She gave up and walked away. So did I, feeling somewhat triumphant that I had managed to get the contract back. I know I was stupid to begin with, but sometimes I'm just too naive for my own good. Other times I'm highly suspicious, it's not really reconcilable I guess.
Anyway, I am lucky that I found her and that I managed to solve this problem. I hate conflicts and I don't usually shout at people, so going outside and doing this was a big step for me. It's not the first time that somebody managed to make me subscribe for something (last time it wasn't a fraud though), but it's definitely the last time. No more miss nice Jess.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

New words

one for each day of the year so far...

01 petty - belanglos, unbedeutend
02 fealty - Lebenstreue, Lebenspflicht
03 insurgency - Auflehnung
04 insurgent - Rebell
05 (to) uproot - entwurzeln
06 jihad - Muslim holy war against infidels
07 stooge - Strohmann
08 zealot - Fanatiker, Zelot
09 (to) deflect - ableiten, verlagern, ausschlagen
10 (to) dispel - vertreiben
11 log-jam - delay/stoppage
12 fratricidal (this one's self-explanatory)
13 writ - Schriftstück, Erlass, Aufforderung
14 snub - Abfertigung, Brüskierung
15 junta - party / group
16 manhunt / search / tracing - Fahndung
17 wanted list - Fahndungsliste
18 deception / fallacy / sophism / erroneous belief / wrong conclusion - Trugschluss
19 aberration - Abweichung, Irrweg, Geistesverwirrung
20 transition period / transition phase - Übergangsphase
21 summit conference - Gipfeltreffen
22 G8 summit - G8-Gipfeltreffen
23 blighter / gadfly - Quälgeist
24 (to) do sth with gusto - etwas mit Begeisterung tun
25 (to) do sth willy nilly - etwas nur halb / nicht richtig machen
26 (to) defuse - entschärfen
27 incentive - Ansporn, Stimulus, Anreiz / antreibend, anspornend
28 (to) rig up - zurechtbasteln
29 heinous - verrucht
30 misoygymy - hatred of women


Give me more!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Just to make it official

I have decided to found a newspaper. It will be called The Happy Hypocrite