Minimum Spin Speed

 

Impressive how important it is to have a minimum spin speed.
If you move your things fast enough they keep a perfect shape - independent whether it's pizza dough or a situation in life. The amazing thing is that even shapes can be created that seem to be completely impossible because they are unstable - like a thin disc of pizza dough floating in mid air.
The bad thing is that the shape collapses instantly as soon as you decrease the spinning speed.
Stopping is not an option. Exhausting but true.

Thanks to the pizza chef in a nice restaurant in Vienna for the funny little photo shooting. I'll send you a paper print of this photo.

Beginning, End and the Time Between

 

It's only about the time between.

Most of the time I'm not aware that something is about to begin or that the end of something is near. Most of the time it's ok because life is full of such situations.
Some periods last many decades, some of them are about years and some of them exist only for a few days or even only for a breath.

Sometime it's really absurd how little time is available between start and end.
As soon as you realized that something important has started it's over.

Lucky you if you managed to make the time between begin and end valuable and satisfying.

Changes are good and important but they really leech a lot of energy out of your mind.

These days I have the feeling that beginning and end are too close together. Let's see how to deal with it.

As Much as You Want

 

"Usually one of my CDs is 15 Euros. Today I try really desperately to sell them and it's fu**ing hard because of the cold weather. You know what - you can give me as much as you want".

After a funny chat with the (probably Irish) street musician I gave him 10 Euros for his CD and the wish for one more song.

"You can give as much as you want".

This sentence seemed kind of important for me. Not because of this CD but in general.
Most of the time one could give a lot more than expected - a lot more. Why don't we just give a bit more? We wouldn't even notice it because we have more than we need - in almost every aspect.
The lady at the checkout in the supermarket expects nothing more than a "Same to you". Why not giving her a "I wish you the best possible workday and only smiling customers"?
Why the hell is it that less what we are willing to give?
At least I could try to give just a little bit more than expected when it comes to being kind. I guess it's worth it.

The Cemetery of the Nameless

If I would create a Top-5-List of the saddest places I know, this one would be in it.

There's a spot near the river Danube in Vienna where the current washed dead bodies to the shore regularly in the last century.
In most cases the identity of the dead was completely unknown and the bodies were buried directly on site in the cemetery of the nameless.
Nowadays there are no new graves because the current of the river changed due to a harbor built nearby. The cemetery is now surrounded by industrial buildings and the noise of machines.
It was very difficult to find the place in the middle of all this factories.
I felt pity for the nameless humans buried without memories beneath howling machines.

I wanted to visit this place for many years and although it was a sad place I'm glad that I did it.

Hopefully we leave a few happy memories behind for our friends when we die instead of a simple sign saying "unknown, male".

 ´

Olli Schulz

Sometimes the talks between the songs are more entertaining than the music itself.
For the concert of Olli Schulz this was the case. The guy was really funny although the stories he told actually were not.
I hope this was not my last concert in March.

Contentedness is a Chocolate Waffle

Being satisfied with your life can be as easy as enjoying a hot chocolate waffle or as complicated as trying to climb the Mt. Everest.
This lady in Vienna definitely found out her own way of being satisfied.
Unfortunately I didn't ask her how to do this.
At least we ate the same delicious waffle with powdered sugar and Nutella.

Explored Summer

Click on photo to view it in different sizes on my Flickr account

Heeyyyy!
One of my photos was in "Flickr Explore"!

Every day, flickr, the biggest photo website in the world chooses 500 photos they consider as the "most awesome". They call it "Flickr Explore".
I don't know about the algorithm the images are choosen with but based on the fact that there are more than 2 billion photos in Flickr I'm kind of proud that one of my contributions were chosen beside the really really stunning photos there.
The strange thing is that I took the photo already last summer at a small lake in Thuringia. I was strolling around with a young guy and I gave him my small camera. We played the photo-assignment game and one of our topics was simply "Summer".
This photo was my "Summer" photo.

Click [here] to browse some of the amazing explored photos at fickr (don't forget to press the "Reload"-button at the page for more photos).


By the way: Last week my blog had its 30.000 visitor since January 2006.
Thank you for constantly visiting my site.

Elements, Part 2

 

Wind and rain can be a very good combination.
Today the raindrops helped to make the strong wind visible.
On a walk through Nuremberg I saw a lot of remains of fights between men and the elements.

Guess what - the elements won.

 

 

Elements, Part 1

Click on photo to view it in different sizes on my Flickr account

This weekend was dedicated to the elements.
A very strong wind blew all day long and fat raindrops were accompanying it.
I made a hike to a hill near Nuremberg that is very exposed.
The wind was howling very loud and it sounded like the soundtrack to Armageddon. The could performed races in the sky looking like a dark army on its way to battlefield.
One could really feel the elements and I leeched the intense whether as much as I could. Earth felt very real and I felt like a part of it - a very very small part actually.