Cause Celeb (Helen Fielding)

Cause Celeb is Helen Fielding’s (of Bridget Jones fame) first novel. [And it's also my first wikipedia entry. I already changed a couple of things but this time I wrote the whole thing *proudlypatsownshoulder*.]

It’s exactly what you’d expect it to be. It’s funny and entertaining, not really surprising and not really challenging, intellectually (or otherwise, come to think about it).

It’s chick lit, riddled with clichés (but none too disturbing) and with the obligatory happy end. Exactly the kind of thing you need when you don’t want to think.

Plus: It’s got a quote by Douglas Adams on the back.

Bored

What do you do, when you’re bored?

I search the internet for things that interest me or make me laugh or I blog. Unfortunately, I spend so much time right now in front of the computer searching the internet that almost all I can blog about are things I found there.

No life, no tales. Unless you want to see my creative writing, which is mostly in German and I really don’t know if it’s any good. (But you can let me know if you want to read it anyway and tell me your thoughts.)

Maybe I should get in touch with my Mailer Daemon. It sounds like it has some time to spare. We could start a nice chat and see where things lead us.

Or I could write a few lists. I like lists. They make me feel like I accomplished something. Usually cracked.com is a good place to see other people’s lists, which are not only very diverse but also funny. Unfortunately, the people at work thought it would be a good idea to deny me access to cracked, leaving me a sobbing mess, who doesn’t get more work done either. (The reason I don’t get more work done, btw, is the lack of work and not my hours of ambling through the internet.)

Or I try to find blogs I like, which sometimes is incredibly frustrating. There must be so many good blogs out there but I manage to consequently pick out those, which are written by angsty teens/haven’t been updated since 1992/make me feel bad because my technical knowledge equals zero point one/…

Sometimes I even do some work for uni. But very rarely because concentrating on that stuff at work is pretty hard.

A lot of time is spent with questionnaires. But that’s not that satisfying anymore, because most are stupid. Or I’ve done them already. Or both.

Ever heard of the bore out syndrom?

Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)

Kafka on the Shore is a novel by Haruki Murakami (who btw. has a beautiful homepage with Random House). Like almost everything else he writes, it’s magical realism. Like everything I’ve read from him so far (which isn’t a lot, truth to be told), it’s wonderfully written, engaging, intelligent, but not too intellectual (too intellectual = reading it with a dictionary and an encyclopedia close by so you understand it), entertaining, interesting, outspoken, sexy, … Long story short, it’s everything you want a novel to be.

I really, really loved all the characters. There wasn’t one I thought was ill-conceived or not likeable. 

It’s a book to read again and again. Perfect.

In case you were wondering…

Here’s how I spent my weekend:

Short Observations

I just watched the Trailer to The Incredible Hulk. Just a few things to say about that.

1. I <3 Tim Roth.
2. It’s been way too long since I saw Edward Norton in the cinema.
3. Edward Norton is hot. *drool*
4. Edward Norton in this film is even hotter. *swoon*
5. Did they do something to his eyes, or were they always that blue?

I’m not sure if it’s going to be a good film, for some mysterious reason, I didn’t really pay attention to quality factors *cough*. But I definitely want to see it.

At least, don’t forward it…

My weekend was pretty uneventful. Therefore I had the time to go to the cinema and watch Be Kind Rewind.

I liked it, although I did expect a little more from it. The sweded movies are fun and - in the times of the ever growing popularity of youtube, where an estimated 95% videos are remakes of other youtube videos - it wonderfully shows a new art form that emerged in the past years.

I also really, really loved the movie about Fats [I hope that was the guy’s name, I’m not sure right now) - it was beautiful.

Mos Def was great, as was Sigourney Weaver. Marcus Carl Franklin was there as well (although you didn’t see much of him).

And now come the buts… Michel Gondry could have shown more of the sweded movies (btw, you can watch them and a sweded trailer here), they had me under my seat, laughing. Jack Black could have toned it down a bit, he was overacting as usual, but this time it just didn’t fit the movie and the mood.

I do think it’s worth a watch, but you could have made a lot more of it.

I’m off for the (almost long) weekend. Will be at my parents’ where internet access is rather hard (the comp is in their bedroom), so expect to hear from me on monday or tuesday again. Probably with a picture or two of the cute puppies. Or some deep and meaningful insight I acquired during two days of lying around and relaxing.

While I’m away, I will give you some homework… :P I’m thinking about changing the layout of this site, any suggestions?

I only can read one at a time…

… or else I may die laughing. Almost as effective as this.

Weird and Cool

What link do you want to have first? The weirdly cool one or the cooly weird one? :)

Weirdly Cool: The GrammarBlog. I love those things. If you are into it, I can also recommend Lost in Translation (no, not the movie) by Charlie Croker. ["Greetings, large black man." Remember the rest of the quote, deadra? I don't have the book with me...] I also know some of this stuff in German, but I guess that’s not that interesting for you, is it?

Anyway, a quick quote, so you know what you’re getting into:

I had the misfortune (or stupidity, your call) to dislocate my shoulder over the weekend. I took the opportunity to peruse the walls of Newcastle General Hospital’s A&E Waiting Room. All patients in A&E are given a category numbered one to four; category one is for patients with life threatening conditions, while category four is the hammered moron who has yet to realise that A&E is not a toilet. To my disgust, there were glaring errors, both syntactically and semantically in categories 1 and 4. Allow me, if you will, to share the details:

Category 1
These patients are requiring immediate treatment as their life is, or has the potential to be life threatening. These patients are seen first.

Good to know that those patients whose life (not condition) is life threatening, are seen first. Essentially what you’re telling me, then, Newcastle General Hospital A&E Waiting Room, is that psychopaths are seen first. Or at least the potential ones. I see no problem there. I felt distinctly Category 1 after reading the description.

Category 4
These patients are well enough or have minor injuries which will wait in turn to see the doctor until all the above mentioned categories have been dealt with.

Since when have injuries had to wait in turn to see the doctor? Surely it would be a good idea to deal with the patients in a given category rather than the categories themselves.

Clearly the descriptions of categories 1 and 4 were written by the mentally incapable.

Cooly Weird: Roadkill Toys. No, that is not a typo. Thought the viruses (viri? virusses? *g*) where strange? Well, be prepared for stranger things.

 

Things

Here’s a list of things I’d really, really like to have but probably won’t ever get.*

I want

• never to have a migraine ever again.
• an audiobook read by Seth Rogen (god, what a voice). Preferably reading a good book. But it doesn’t really matter so much.
• to be finished with uni. [Ok, hopefully, I will get this point one day.]
• that my little nephew is nice to me, because he wants to, not because his mom tells him to [I really don't know what I did to the little guy. He probably just hates me].
• a time turner.
• to be able not to sleep if needed.
• basically, time.
• a romance novel that is well written and not a combination of the same old clichés over and over again. And not too mushy.
• my brother to have his own cigarettes so I don’t have to give him some all the time.
• a challenging job I really like and which makes me rich, while leaving me enough spare time.
• a house in the outer districts of Vienna, built around 1900, with a garden and about 5-10 bedrooms. And, of course a library and a home cinema, both equipped with every book and DVD I want to have.
• to be able to sing and play an instrument. [I apologise to everyone who ever heard me try to get to this point.]
• to meet Christian Bale, then find out that he really is everything I imagine him to be and then we fall in love and live happily ever after.
• probably a million more things I can’t think of right now.

—–

*I exclude things like world peace and so on. This is my (purely selfish) list.