Nuts

6 pounds of nuts- the result of today´s walk.
Cannot wait to get nut-"strudel"- a pastry filled with nuts, rum and raisins;)))
Here a recipe, a typical X-mas pastry here in Europe, especially in Austria and Germany.
But I hope, I don´t have to wait till X-mas to get it.
So I´ll bake it with my mum soon;)
Yummy!

Book-corner:
The Man Booker Prize 2011 - Julian Barnes

I do it again

What? Recommending Chris Cleave´s "Little Bee".
"Little Bee will blow you away"(Washington Post)
#1 New York Times bestseller that is "immensely readable and moving...an affecting story of human triumph" (NY Times book review)

I could go on and on and write about all the positive reviews-
just read the first chapter and form an opinion.
Check out the author´s homepage here (where you´ll find the first chapter): Chris Cleave
Have to get his other book "Incendiary" soon.

Anyone out there who read this book or plans to read it?

Enjoy your weekend- and your online access;)
In 1 week I´ll have to return this borrowed laptop-- and mine hasn´t been repaired;(

I miss a lot

Art is an essential part of my life- and it has turned out that writing means more to me than I have ever thought of.

Because of many reasons I couldn´t post here. I just can use another laptop sometimes and I am not able to post my photos and revise my drafts or be creative for my art-blog-where I received my first award.(Surprise and many thanks to Teca;)

I have so many great pics to share but no possibility at the moment to post them;(
The laptop I use now has no software for "editing" my art;(
I have no access to many email-adresses and all my other data--horrible as well!I haven´t saved my second draft and so many other important things...

I am frustated because I´m not able to work, write and blog as before...
Hope my laptop will be repaired soon!

After a great week in my fav city (thanks B.!) I Just came home from another trip (Balaton-Hungary)and now between writing these lines and preparing for the job I have to get ready for visiting my parents in the evening...
I don´t spend a lot of time at home at the moment but that´s ok.

There´d be so much to tell but no time right now. No time for music links,.....but I take some time for advertising a book although I haven´t read the whole (I just got it)
I have never recommended a book in this stage of reading-- but the beginning is so interesting and the style of writing so great and different- that I break my own rule
get Chris Cleave´s "Little Bee" and be ready for the unexpected,...

Have a great week, my friends!

For Readers and Rockers;)

News Corner:

World Book Day- Unesco- April 23 



Music Corner: Rock it!!!!




Anastacia "Paid my dues"

AC/DC Back in Black

and Rock´n Roll Train

Skating

 Again some photos from Vienna- the town hall behind a big skating area. I added a plan that you can imagine the place there.










No real writing and reading at the moment. What´s "real" writing? Or reading? Blogging is writing and it really happens--so? Ok, I´m writing mails and posts (not revisions,...), I read travel guides and this one is really cool- great infos and many pics, maps and photos, I love to see what I read about.


Amazon.de

 So, I enjoy my weekend and have fun with friends;) Enjoy your day as well!! In one day, and soon I´ll start with my "real" reading and writing again;)))

For book and music- lovers.....

Link-Corner:

Online library of literature-worth visiting:)

Music-corner:
Voca People
Ready for something new- just voices , no percussions, pretty cool stuff!

YouTube Reader

Book corner:
Interesting read- "The YouTube Reader" by  PVonderau

                           Book Review: ‘The Youtube Reader’- by P.Snickars and P.Vonderau


As the fastest-growing website in the history of the Web, Youtube can be see as the figurehead in online-video and an inspiration for all sites to come. Any random visitor of Youtube surfing to the website and uploading the footage of his latest vacation to Italy, watching a video of a giggling baby or commenting on a CNN coverstory on the war in Iraq is unaware of the many characteristics this website holds. Therefore this platform has been the object of study in various fields of study ranging from a philosophical basis to a more technological.
Pelle Snickars and Patrick Vonderau recognised the many contradictions and metaphors within Youtube and composed a reader ‘that presupposes a broader theoretical framework and a critical distance vis-a-vis Youtube discourse itself’ and one that ‘would provide researchers, teachers and students with a programmatic selection of foundational texts, permitting them to mount an intervention’ (Snickars & Vonderau, 2009: p. 17

 http://www.kb.se/Dokument/Aktuellt/YouTube_Reader_Inledning.pdf (National Library of Sweden)

Last day of Banned Book Week

Wow, the second post today.
The week has just started and now it´s gone. What an insight!  Ha! Is that bad poetry?
Ok, have to get serious now.

I haven´t finished reading my banned book during banned book week-what a shame! But I´ll finish it soon.

Found too many interesting posts or articles about banned books and how to celebrate this week on         The Ineluctable Bookshelf and New York Times:-) 
--great information ! It´s worth a visit!

Have fun reading;-) and happy weekend!

I did it again;-)

Last weekend I spent 2 days in Vienna- a beautiful city.

I really enjoyed the time there but therefore I had no time for reading and writing...

On the one hand I feel a little bit guilty for not having done anything but on the other hand I had a good time. And sometimes everybody needs some days off.

                                                                                    

"Kaiserschmarren"- a delicious dish!!!!! See my distractions?:-)

The whole time my inner voice tried to remind me of my writings but I ´ve ignored her this weekend very successfully.

Now the result: a bad conscience! So what?

It´s ok the way it is. I´m glad about having this guilty conscience; better this  than no conscience at all;-)

So I ´ve started to work on my writing today and I hope, I´ll be able to write a little bit every day. Writing some paragraphs should become my daily routine. During NaNoWriMo I was able to write about 1600 words a day, so it has to be possible to do it (although it´s another sort of writing).

But no excuses anymore for today!

At the moment I often wonder, how people manage it to pursue a strict daily time schedule.

Recipe-corner:

Emperor´s Pancake

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
5 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons butter
powdered sugar

Directions:Prep Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 18 mins
1 Sift the flour, sugar and salt together into a bowl. 2 Add the milk gradually, beating constantly. 3 Add the egg yolks 1 at a time and beat until well blended. 4 Beat the egg whites until stiff and STIR 1/3 into the batter. 5 Carefully FOLD in the remainder egg whites. 6 Over moderately high heat, melt 1 Tablespoon butter in an 8 to 9 inch skillet with sloping sides. 7 When the butter is sizzling, pour in 1/2 the batter and cook 3 to 4 minutes. 8 Loosen the edges of the pancake with a spatula and slide it onto a plate. 9 Invert the pancake back into the skillet and cook about 1 minute until the underside is brown. 10 Invert onto a heating serving plate and keep warm. 11 Prepare the second pancake in the same manner. 12 Sprinkle with powdered sugar. 13 Tear the pancakes into rough pieces with 2 forks and serve immediately. (Source: http://www.food.com/)
 
Enjoy!! ...and serve it with stewed plums or apples;-)

Life is Funny.

What a statement. Just came to my mind, because I´ve started to read a banned book called "Life is Funny" by E.R.Frank. It ´s a well written book with realistic characters, and the MCs have to deal with real teenager problems...all I can say at the moment.

Life is funny, sometimes. Hopefully very often in our lives.

It hasn´t been funny to hear about banned books.I was not used to banned book lists, banned book weeks, banned book clubs,... in my homecountry.
But now I appreciate having read books at school which are banned in other countries. Unfortunately, not every person has the freedom to read everything. So, to celebrate the freedom to read-check out my link to banned book week on the right:-)
Be brave and read a dangerous book and tell me about it:-)

So, as a fighter against censorships I think, I have done today´s job.

Back to some other fights.
Life isn´t funny all the time, we all are familiar with that reality.
But sometimes there are many times, when you need to fight. OK, right, it´s called life;-)
I like the photo on the top- reminds me to push myself. Not always easy.

My time-management? Horrible at the moment...
Need a 48 hours day! Maybe Harry Potter could help me...
Enough moaning and dreaming, it´s time to act and face reality.
I just need a working daily schedule, I need more discipline, positive thinking,I need to....
I love to write these self motivating sentences but now I have to
do what I´m writing about.

But that´s another chapter...

So, readers and writers, fight for your books!
...and enjoy reading a banned book or writing a new one!
But simply, enjoy your lives and have a great weekend!

Banned Book Week (Sept. 25 to Oct. 2)

Too many banned books out there...so it´s time to fight ! Fight censorship and read a banned book! The Ineluctable Bookshelf pointed me to Steph Sue Reads´blog and the banned books reading challenge. So, everybody out there, join the fun and read a banned book. I´ll do the same and ordered the first book yesterday. (Unfortunately I don´t get all books here).

I´ll read "Life is funny" by E.R. Frank.

What about you?

...and by the way, I really have no idea, why some of these books are banned. Many of them I read at school.

My night with Moll;-)

Well, just try to find my way back to "normal" life. After 10 days focused on writing + reading it´s hard to prepare my stuff for short holidays. I´m just tired but have to pack my bags. Funny, I have no clue where to spend my holidays. Fact is my best friend comes with me to...??? Have to find a goal. Greece is too hot- Oslo maybe too far away, I don´t know where to go. Maybe it´s the best to stay in Austria-in the South to be able to visit Italy or Slovenia..we´ll have to discuss that later. Have to visit my sister, water my parents´+ uncle´s plants-all on holiday, have to do so many things and no plan where to start- and no power as well.

During the last days I just was focused on my course- lived in another world once more. I didn´t sleep more than 6 hours each night (too less for me), just stood up, ate something drove to Vienna, started the course, had an 1 hour lunch break-again course, went home, wrote and read,....I nearly had the same rhythm every day, nearly...except my night with Moll.

I spent nearly the whole night on reading , summarizing and responding to an article of Moll. It wasn´t an easy one but interesting (Lessons from Research with language minority children). But it was also a night when I nearly hit the wall and I had to overcome my fear of not getting it done in time. I knew I could do it but the pressure of not having enough time for work had been enormous in this night. I´ll never forget this night- went to bed at 1 in the morning and stood up at 4.30. It was hard but at least I did it! And after seeing may graded work I was glad to have spent so much time on that assignment.
So- hard work pays off!
But don´t ask me how I got through the day...

Now 2 weeks without course- but I have to do 4 assignments for the next block-starting in just 2 weeks. I have no idea, when and how and where I´ll write and read-but I´ll do it. Good feedback motivated me enough to do it. But now-that´s for sure I have to have some days off.

So have a good time, enjoy the summer and keep writing;-)

Hot-new medias-refreshing- nature;-)

Remember last week- when I told you about the cold and wet weather with 53°F? 7 days later it´s the other way round- temperature 90°+F! What a difference, now summer has started.


It´s a bit hard to concentrate on reading or writing in this heat but I make progress.

BTW- I bought my first item on ebay- an electronic dictionary for less than 2 $! Hope it works, too:-) I´ll see. I love books but for the new course I prefer the new medias. Smaller than a calculator.So I don´t have to carry the thick old dictionary with me.

And for those of you who like to eat (and bake and cook) as much as I do- here ´s the perfect page for you---> http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/

Just tried the strawberry spinach salad- yummy!! I have never combined strawberries and salad before-but it´s refreshing. So let´s cook, bake and enjoy!!

Advertising

http://j-gonzalez.blogspot.com/--> gorgeous photos!

http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2010/05/serenity.html--> daily poems, cool parodies, comic rhymes, children's poems and 'serious stuff'. Really funny!

Visited The Ineluctable Bookshelf today and admired the graphics. The black-and-white picture there reminded me of a friend´s artwork in a way. (Yeah, it´s black and white, too;-) I know!)

--> great collection of books (different genres) , author profiles, short book-introductions help you to ´get a sense of what a book is about´.

So enjoy a colorful weekend ! Here the artwork from my little goddaughter;-)

Illusion

I just finished reading "Egypt´s Sun King, Amenophis III" by J. Fletcher which was an interesting book about Egyptian History. Then I got interested in reading about Neferiti, or Nefertiti or Nofretete. Just wondering why this queen of Egypt has so many different names.


Reading the next lines I just had to laugh-
"CT scan uncovers hidden face of Nefertiti
Beauty of the Nile may have had facelift from skilled artist"


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2009/03/31/nefertiti-face.html#ixzz0kiW5yltq

Well, every human being is growing older. And many people like to use this quote `noone wants to get older but dying young isn´t a good alternative`. In today´s society a good look often is more important than `inner values´- we could start a new discussion on this topic. About the importance of beauty surgeries, the importance of being human, the importance of growing old gracefully,....
In Nefertiti´s times using photoshop was off the cards. But creating an illusion of reality is and was a topic nowadays as well as in the past days. Why do some people prefer the illusion of reality instead living the real life? Do we all need that illusion?
Ok, I must confess that I love illusion, too. Because I love reading and writing. And that´s mostly about creating illusion as well.


Quote- corner:
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. ~Mark Twain
I love that quote, so true!

Pictures and books= picture-books

That´s my first picture (Chicago)- and my latest picture (Venice) -both short-listed for inclusion in a Venice/Chicago Guide. I´m a bit proud of that fact, although they aren´t my favorite pictures, but I like them and it´s good to know others like them , too;-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art-fan/

Today I bought an Amsterdam Guide, have to spend some time reading it. I´ve been there once with my mum, but that was way back. I look forward to visiting the museums and to admiring the architecture there. Cute but small buildings, the "Grachten"= the small canals remind me a little bit of Venice or Stockholm (although the canals are bigger there).

To my writing and reading:
I want to revise my draft after my holidays, then I´ll be relaxed (really? I always need holidays afterwards because I walk the whole week through a town to see everything) and in February I´ll have to be ready for it.
Reading is funny at the moment because of the variety of genres. At the moment I´m switching between different languages and kinds of books. Each day another one;-)
I read "Walk 2 Moons", a National Geographic book about Trekking in New Zealand, something about Tibet and the Panchen Lama, today I´ve started to read the Bible for research, then there is the Amsterdam Guide, tonight´s project, another NY Guide (one of many, but I love travelling, especially in the States, Europe and Australia; Therefore I have nearly 2 shelves full of travel guides,...have to go through and sort them out one day, well, one day...) and I received 2 stories from B. Great!
Now I´m realizing I ´m reading more than I`ve thought. That´s good.

Music-corner:
Lang-Lang playing Liszt on the piano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQN5UhvAPq4&feature=fvw