Accidentally popular! Frank, did you hear the click?

Rita and Frank try to take a still photo to email to friends for Frank's 84th Birthday on their new Computer, but they are filming themselves all the time. People immediatly fall in love with Rita, who is trying so hard to take the perfect picture, and Frank, the cooles granddad in the world. He is holding the cake proudly and he is smiling constantly - you´ll love them too. I really hope they made it in the end, but the video is just brilliant. The footage itself coulp make an Apple spot: Did you hear a click? No.

Yours truly,

Hanna

For Bloggeramt

Thank´s!

XYZ - lazy but with much love - my last A to Z challenge post

As I said in the beginning - the A to Z challenge is like a big party and we were invited. And when every party comes to an end it is an unwritten law that there has to be some oldies. As I still needed the x y and z letter I chose to finish the party with a classic. A song from the 80´s hard rock band XYZ.

I will continue blogging but I will have to make my mind up what I want to do. I loved every letter and I defenately will be back for the next A to Z challenge.

Yours truly,

Hanna

What would you do?

We are coming to the end of the challenge and I thought about the future of my blog; getting a bit sentimental here J. I love blogging – but I have the strong feeling that I have to decide on one point what do I want to achieve with my blog? I mean most of you write about special themes...so I think I need to specialise on a certain topic as well.
I really can imagine writing about golfing – there is so much to write about, and there are not many blogs about golfing. I further need to decide if I want to continue blogging in English or switching back to German language. On the one hand, I love to write in English to improve my skills – on the other hand, I am kind of limited because I am not really able to express what I am really thinking. It is so hard to be emotional in another language.
I think that there is one alternative: I continue writing this blog from time to time about whatever comes to my mind and start a new golf-blog. What would you do?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Vacation with no money – who can help?

Of course it is nice to have holidays from time to time. This year I dreamed of visiting Norway, especially I wanted to see the Lofoten. I wanted to experience playing golf around midnight, as the sun is not going down these days.After I calculated the costs including renting a caravan I recognized that there is no chance of getting there, staying there, eating there of doing anything. So I got to save some money first and postpone the trip.

But I still want to have a little bit of summer experience. I mean there are thousands of all inclusive offers that might be attractive; but only if you enjoy lying on the beach all day and staying in a nice fancy hotel. Sorry, not for me – I like seeing things, doing all sorts of things, being active, nice nature, fascinating buildings, culture, people etc. So please let me know if you know some good websites or experiences with some cool road trip routes, great destinations you’ve visited...anything helps ;-)

Yours truly,

Hanna

Umbrellas, and where they come from

The basic umbrella was invented over four thousand years ago. We have seen evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and China. These ancient umbrellas or parasols, were first designed to provide shade from the sun. The Chinese were the first to waterproof their umbrellas for use as rain protection. They waxed and lacquered their paper parasols in order to use them for rain.

Origins of the Term Umbrella

The word "umbrella" comes from the Latin root word "umbra", meaning shade or shadow. Starting in the 16th century the umbrella became popular to the western world, especially in the rainy weather of northern Europe. At first it was considered only an accessory suitable for women. Then the Persian traveler and writer, Jonas Hanway (1712-86), carried and used an umbrella publicly in England for thirty years, he popularized umbrella use among men. English gentleman often referred to their umbrellas as a "Hanway."

James Smith and Sons

The first all umbrella shop was called "James Smith and Sons". The shop opened in 1830, and is still located at 53 New Oxford Street in London, England. The early European umbrellas were made of wood or whalebone and covered with alpaca or oiled canvas. The artisans made the curved handles for the umbrellas out of hard woods like ebony, and were well paid for their efforts.

English Steels Company

In 1852, Samuel Fox invented the steel ribbed umbrella design. Fox also founded the "English Steels Company", and claimed to have invented the steel ribbed umbrella as a way of using up stocks of farthingale stays, steel stays used in women's corsets. After that, compact collapsible umbrellas were the next major technical innovation in umbrella manufacture, over a century later.

I hope you enjoyed the history of umbrellas as much as I did.

Yours truly,

Hanna

PS: The article was copied from this website.

Tee or Coffee?

Earlier today, I played a golf tournament. It is called early bird and it ends with a nice breakfast that is included in the starting fee. When we finished the round we sat down and the waitress served coffee for everybody. I asked her if I can have tee instead but she denied it. I was wondering why and she explained that she has to follow her bosses order; tee is treated as coffee and has to be paid. “But tee is cheaper than a cup of coffee. And not everybody is drinking coffee – so there must be an alternative. Oh there is an alternative, water, she replied. I tried to argue that people usually drink coffee or tee…no chance. Her final argument was: We are in Germany and not in England- we drink coffee – end of discussion. This was a great inspiration for my “t” post although I still think this was unfair. On the other hand it was interesting to see how deep the prejudices are. It might have to be founded on certain standard of education, or lack of traveling experience.

I further found out that she is convinced that there is no one in Great Britain drinking coffee….as if ;-)

Yours truly,

Hanna

Shit I am old – but it is time for gold

I recently found some golden earrings of my mum. They are very pretty, but I never thought of actually wearing them because all my life I favored silver accessories instead of golden ones. In my eyes, gold jewelry was something that rather fits to elder women than to me. With this in mind I went to the mirror and put them on. The first thing came to my mind was: Oh they look very pretty on me and really suit me. The second thought was: Shit-I am old!

So what happened? I concluded that it might actually be an age thing. I know that there are girls wearing gold accessories the whole time at every age. However, I did not. I am 28, finished study, got a job, living in a long-term relationship-so it might be just the right time for gold.

Another reason for my sudden mind switch could be the seven-year rule. Every seven years our bodies renew our cells and our system is kind of rebooting; sorry for not being able to give you the whole background - biology class was ages ago. Anyway, it does seem to work for me. I quit smoking seven years ago; changed hairstyle (still got my boyfriend – I wonder how that fit’s in?), changed my perfume …so changing my taste of ornaments seems to be just appropriate I still have the age thing in my mind – but who cares right? I just love observing such things and I love studying my own small circle of life.

What are your experiences? Do these things happen to you as well?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Rabbit facts

Easter is almost there and rabbits are everywhere...but did you know these ten facts I found in the internet?

1. A male rabbit is called a “buck.” A female is called a “doe.” A baby rabbit is a “kit.
2. The babies are referred to as a litter and the largest litter of baby rabbits is 24. It has happened twice. Once in 1978 and again in 1999.
3. Rabbit’s teeth never stop growing.
4. The world record for the rabbit high jump is 1 meter.
5. The world record for the record long jump is 3 meters. That's over 9 feet!
6. The longest ears are 31.125 inches long. They belong to an American rabbit, Nipper's Geronimo.
7. The longest-lived rabbit was nearly 19 years old when he died.
8. A rabbit has 18 toenails: 4 on each of the back feet, and 5 on each of the front.
9. President Lincoln allowed his sons to keep many pets in the White House, including pet rabbits.
10. Rabbits can see behind them without turning their heads.

Have a great start into your Easter vacation!

Yours truly,

Hanna

Q-Words

A great advantage of A to Z challenge is that I can learn so many new things. Thinking of what to do with the letter q was kind of challenging. I almost struggled but when I googled q-words I was impressed how many q-words exist in the english language. I think I would have never come across the folloging q-words:

1. quasquicentennial = one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary
2. quassation = act of shaking or being shaken
3. quidnunc = busybody; one keenly interested in gossip
4. quindecasyllabic = having fifteen syllables
5. quisling = one who aids the enemy; a puppet leader supported by foreign power
6. quoddamodotative = existing in a certain manner
7. quomodocunquize = to make money in any way possible
8. quoz = absurd person or thing

How about our natives, do you know all these q-words?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Pointless blogging

People often ask me why am I doing this; why am I writing a blog? They cannot understand it and always judge me and say that this blogging is so pointless…

I usually spreading a bunch of arguments and the first ones that I can think of right now are:

• blogging makes me happy


• I like the freedom of writing about anything what comes to my mind


• I enjoy sharing experiences and thoughts with other people


• I sometimes like to entertain other people (mainly my boyfriend;-)


• it also helps me to relax


• I need to have discipline


• I have to come up with creative things although I sometimes don´t really know what to write about

I was wondering lately that there might be some more good reasons I just don´t see or haven´t thought of; that´s why I would like to know:

1. Do you also have to justify yourself because you blog?


2. Why do you like blogging; what´s your point?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Oppossums - amazing animals!

I think that you can learn from watching films and here is an example. I have heard of oppossums, but to be honest, I only knew their look – nothing else. But than I met Crash and Eddie the two antagonizing twin possum brothers from the film Ice Age.

I never would be interested in these fascinating animals without this film. I never would have found out that they only look like a big rat but they are actually related to the koala and kangaroo. Here is what else I´ve learned:

• Opossums have many teeth
• Because they eat roaches, rats, and dead animals some refer to them as "Nature's Little Sanitation Engineers".
• Opossums are said to rank higher in intelligence than dogs.
• Opossums have a remarkable immune system. They even can survive venomous bites from rattlesnakes!

The most incredible fact:

When threatened by an animal it is unable to frighten or run away from, the opossum will "play dead" or "play possum". This response is involuntary. They become comatose, foam from the mouth, and secrete a foul smell from their anal glands. They will not move even if they are prodded at or carried away. Most attackers will simply walk away and the opossum will regain consciousness after a few minutes or even a few hours.

Thank´s to "Ice Age" for this extra lesson.

Yours truly,

Hanna

Not a narcist - just flattered!

The cutest thing happened to me since I started writing my blog: I just got honored with the "Powerful Woman Award". How fantastic is this? Special thanks to Deirdra from "A Storybook World" for choosing me.

I really hope this is not misunderstood ;-) I am not a narcist - I am just flatterd.

Yours truly,

Hanna

Memories, just nice.

Following some memories of unusual stories that I have in my mind but never get the chance to tell them...

• Every second man tried to write their name with their pipi in the snow.
• Heidi Klum is calling her breasts Hans and Franz, Pamela Anderson: Ernie and Bert.
• The American, Kent Couch, flew with 105 balloons over 310 kilometers. It took him nine hours and he had to “kill” one balloon after another to land.
• There is a law regulating that it is not allowed to die in the British parliament.
• A giraffe and a human being do have the same amount of cervical.
• The fastest growing nail on your finger is the little one.

Do you have any memories you don´t need - but you just cannot forget them?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Lupus

Everybody who is watching Dr. House knows the running gag of every season: patients with hard-to-diagnose symptoms are thought to have lupus -- underscoring the difficulty doctors have diagnosing the disease. As the fictional Dr. Gregory House says, "it's rarely ever lupus."And I thought, a running gag is defenately worth being investigated a bit closer: There is a general definition of lupus claiming that it is an autoimmune disease, one that takes on several forms and can affect any part of the body, but is most commonly attacks the skin, joints, the heart, lungs, blood, kidneys and brain - so basically anything. This is why Lupos is the first disease they always think off when they get stucked. Besides, it is very interesting that some of the common symptoms, more or less, would fit to any of our conditions:

• Achy joints with swelling
• Extreme fatigue
• Unexplained rashes
• Unexplained rashes that turn to sores, then scar
• Butterfly (malar) rash across nose and cheeks
• Anemia
• Pleurisy (pain in the chest when deep breathing)
• Ulcers inside the mouth and nose
• Photosensitivity
• Cardiopulmonary disorders (heart/lung)

So I guess, I "had" Lupus about 300 Times in my life so far. I don´t want to make fun of it - I´ll just want to point out that it is a real disease - and so hard to diagnose!

Yours truly,

Hanna

Julie and Julia – the passion of blogging or cooking or love!

Have you ever heard about Julie Powell? She worked at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's call center. Her job was to answer telephone calls from victims of the September 11 attacks and members of the general public complaining about the LMDC's controversial plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center. She always felt sorry for the vicitms, but often there was nothing she could have done for them. To do something she decided to cook every recipe in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) by Julia Child, her role model; and she wrote a blog to motivate herself and document her progress. At the same time, the story of how the cook book was written by Julia Child was showed; in the film Julie and Julia.

The plot highlights similarities in the women's challenges, but in different countries and different times. It further shows the passion of blogging and describes the way of becoming a blogger....I really love this film and highly recommend it!

Yours truly,

Hanna

Ideas

Some people have very creative ideas, some don’t. I am always wondering which part of our body is responsible for the ideas.

The dictionary defines an “idea” as a thought or conception that potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity. It is an opinion, conviction or principle; as well as a plan, scheme, or method. According to research, creative ideas come from the right brain. Roger Sperry, (Nobel Prize for Medicine) showed that the brain is divided into two major parts or hemispheres, the right brain and the left brain, each one with different style of thinking processes and functions: The right brain functions in a non-verbal manner and excels in visual, spatial, perceptual, and intuitive information. It processes information differently than the left-brain, which is more associated with verbal, logical, and analytical thinking. The left-brain does well in naming and categorizing things, symbolic abstraction, speech, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The right brain deals with complexity, ambiguity and paradox. Sometimes, right brain thinking finds it difficult to put into words because it is more complex and because of its ability to process information quickly and its non-verbal nature. For these reasons, the right brain is being linked with the realm of creativity.

So this is the theory, but it is actually not really helping people who are chasing for good ideas. Some say, they can create better ideas when they listen to music, get drunk, take drugs, don´t sleep, do sport. So what do you do?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Home

Today is the best day of the week. Firstly, because it is Friday and on the other hand: I can go home! During the week I work in a city that is about 280km away from my home – too far to go back home weekdays. I love coming home, and these are the things I really look forward to when I think of it. (Inspired by Catlin L. Crawford “Home” poem)

• When I think of 'home' I think of family, friends and my cat
• When I think of 'home' I think of honesty,
• When I think of 'home' I think of love
• When I think of 'home' I think of trust
• When I think of 'home' I think of laughing
• When I think of 'home' I think of food of my mum
• When I think of 'home' I think of freedom
• When I think of 'home' I think of my garden
• When I think of 'home' I think of sleeping
• When I think of 'home' I think of watching films
• When I think of 'home' I think of dancing
• When I think of 'home' I think of playing golf
• When I think of 'home' I think of daytrips
• When I think of 'home' I think of recovery
• When I think of 'home' I think of no make up and trainers
• When I think of 'home' I can't stop smiling

When I think of 'home' all the homeless people come to my mind. So all of us who have a home, let’s not forget to appreciate it! So what do you think of when you think of you home?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Germany

Everytime I´ve been abroad and talked to people from other countries about Germany, I was surprised how little they actually know about us. Of course everyone can remember the history lessons but this is our past. Some of you might be interested in knowing some additional fascinating fun facts about Germany and its culture:

1. Germans like beer so much that they even have an expression with it: Das ist nicht mein Bier, meaning "That is none of my business!" But: Germans are not drunk every day and we also don’t drink beer for breakfast. Oh and we don’t eat Bratwurst or Sauerkraut every day!

2. John F. Kennedy visited Germany in 1963 and announced Ich bin ein Berliner, ‘I am a Berliner’, in solidarity with those living in separated Berlin. Although stories persist this was incorrect it was in fact linguistically perfectly accurate, however a "Berliner" is also the name for a jelly doughnut, although not in Berlin where they are called Pfannkuchen, so it caused a more than a few smiles.

3. Even though there are over 82 million persons living in Germany, we have succeeded in keeping almost 1/3 (31%) of the country covered with forests and woodlands. And, as you rarely see buildings on top of the mountains, you have the feeling of being surrounded by green vegetation and of wilderness close by.

4. Germans are very curious about who their potential employees are going to be: they want to see a photo on the CV and to know if you are married or not.

5. Germans, do not sleep between two sheets. They like to sleep with one sheet underneath and a duvet directly on top of them. And their pillows are not rectangular: they like big very fluffy square pillows.

6. The German “Autobahn” is the oldest, and one of the densest, motorway networks in the world. Many of them don’t have a speed limit.

Theses were just a few fun facts. Of course we have a lot more to offer. If you want to find out more about German culture habits, I like to advice you to the website of Dr. Geert Hofstede who conducted perhaps the most comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture:

To sum up, I think Germany is a fascinating country with its scenic beauty. I really like being abroad but I love living here. The culture, people and food and even the climate are unique and this is what makes Germany a great place to visit. And here is my promise to you: You will find at least one German who is smiling! ;-)

Yours truly,

Hanna

PS: Please feel free to ask anything - or tell me your best or worst moment in Germany

Follower

“If you follow me, I will follow you.” “Wow, he’s got so many follower...” I remember how excited I´ve been when I welcomed my first follower, who was neither a family member nor a friend. A person, I did not know made my day - just by following me. When I think about it, it sounds kind of stupid doesn´t it? Anyway, let´s try to find the reason:

Does this mean that I rather like to write my blog for total strangers than for my own family and friends? Or is there anything I want to prove or even a lack of self-confidence? In my profile description I wrote that my approach of this blog is to practice writing and to get more comfortable in my second language. I am a bit older now and I guess also a bit more grown up. (Although my height is still the same ;-) When I reflect my own thoughts I think I have to add some points. Now I know that I also started writing a blog because I wanted to be part of the blogging people, having the freedom to write about what I want...and how do I know if people like what I am writing? Right, collecting follower and comments.

So what is the best method get more follower? You need to spend lots of time in reading other blogs – commenting on their entries and ask them to visit your blog. This can be very exhausting and time consuming. I know this method works quite well as I already advised people how to manage their blogs and they are quite successful getting hundreds of followers. I personally could not be bothered to invest so much time in reading other blogs and I kind of dislike the “I follow you when you follow me” mentality. I am not a student anymore and I like to spend my free time with my family and friends so I just don´t want to invenst too much time in reading and commenting blogs just to get more follower and comments. But that´t the way it is done.

However, I cannot speak myself free of liking it when I get a comment from a total stranger. It still just makes me happy – which might be the reason why I chose to participate the A to Z challenge. After stopping to write my blog for a while this challenge is my way back on track. Putting myself under the pressure to write constantly about topics that are not related to my job is great. After the first letters I already ask myself – why did I stop it? Stupid me – blogging is brilliant and every comment proves me right, even if there is just one per post and even it is from my family or friends.

So tell me, do you have had similar thoughts? What are your reasons for blogging?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Emotions

Since I work in the communications industry I have learned to see positive “emotions” as a success factor. This is based on the fact that one part of our daily business is to chase for first-class stories and hooks of diverse products which we can offer a journalist. Although, there are some good techniques to create emotions, there is no better way of using real life stories. A very emotional video I have seen this year is about an amazing man who is that amazing that it is worth sharing:

WATCH IT UNTIL THE END!

I cherish the love of the father. I know that there are some voices claiming that this video is way over the top – because of the touching music and the way it is filmed. I know what they mean, but I still love it.

I am not sure if Red Bull produced this video; all you see is that Red Bull sponsors them. However, if they are responsible for this video: compliments to the company – if not – they really missed out a very good emotional successful campaign. On the other hand, they still have a very cheap image boost.

Yours truly,

Hanna

Daft Punk, Daft Hands & Daft Bodies

The music industry is fighting ordinary people uploading their videos on youtube. The reason is quite simple: it is illegal to steal someones music. Today, I would like to show you the next level of using someones song to get famous without getting banned: Imagine you are a successful and popular music such as the French electronic music duo Daft Punk and the most viewed and probably listened videos are not produced from you. You would hate it, right?

But this case is so different that it would be stupid to ban the following two videos. They were created by some Internet users. They used Daft Punks most popular song, Harder, Better, Faster Stronger, in the most unusual way to make fun of it; from my point of view, in the most creative and extraordinary way.

The video “Daft Hands” was first and there are quite a few video copying the idea.

You think this is great? Than check out the two ladies in "Daft Bodies" which is even more impressive.

I think both videos are amazing because they are no cuts or breaks! Probably one reason why Daft Punk has not deleted the videos yet.

Yours truly,

Hanna

Crying man in the 21th century

When was the last time you saw a crying man scene in a film? I do - Colin Firth in the Kings speech. And while watching crying Colin I thought that I haven´t seen many crying man scenes since Titanic. But why?

There is no given reason or statistic I can relate to, thus I am just guessing that crying man are simply not attractive these days. My personal opinion is, that it really depends on the man. I really don’t know why, but a crying Jim Carrey is less appealing to me than a crying Daniel Craig.

My thesis: The more masculine a man is and the less vulnerable he seems, the more attractive he is to me when he cries. And as long as they don’t cry in every film, I would be happy to see more of theses scenes in the future. Here are my top five crying man, starting in reverse order. By the way, all pictures are part of the series: “Crying Men” by Sam Taylor-Wood.

5. Hayden Christiansen

4. Jude Law

3. Forest Whitaker

2. Ed Harris

1. Daniel Craig – I admire this picture!

So what is your opinion? Crying man in Hollywood, hot or weak?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Barbie had a role model

Many of our role models made their way from America to Europe. Stars are made in Hollywood – and Hollywood is where Europe tend to look up to. But there is at least one thing I know which was invented after a European inspiration: The most popular doll in history, Barbie.

Originally, I was planning to tell something about her invention, but while researching the topic, I came across an even more interesting story. Barbies role model called Bild Lilli, born in Germany and working for one of the biggest and most popular tabloid magazines in Germany:

Six years before Barbie was invented in the US and born in Japan in 1959 there was a cortoon character, created by Reinhard Beuthien for the tabloid Bild Newspaper.

Following Beuthien's drawings a prototype of the doll was designed. Until 1964, when Mattel aquired the rights to the doll about 130.000.

Today, Lilli is a collector´s piece and commands prices up to several thousand Euros.

Isn´t that interesting?

Yours truly,

Hanna

Appletinis - shaken not stirred!

I really think one can compare the A to Z Challenge to an ordinary party. You got an invitation or just saw the ad, got a recommendation from a friend...we all thought: wow this is kind of cool, why not try to be part of this. It is so easy to register and to get a ticket in no time and now we are all in. I thought, a good party needs to start with a good drink and an introduction of myself. My name is Kiw - Hanna la Kiw. Does this remind you of somebody? Since we are starting with A – I choose my favourite A-Drink, which is Appletini!

Still don’t know what an Appletini is? I am sure you remember the famous spy James Bonds saying: One Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred. This is the origin of an Appletini, but the taste is completely different. According to the girls of Sex in the City, the doctors fromScrubs and the Colbert Report this drink is old fashioned and all three popularized the drink of the new age. The ladies love the sweetness because the apple flavour generally masking the vodka, guys like the bite and probably identify themselves with the good old spy James.

Although, there are many different versions how to mix a good Appletini almost everybody agrees on how it should be served: straight up in a martini glass, and often garnished with an apple slice. Drink ingredients are poured over ice, and shaken not stirred before being strained into the serving glass.

My favorite recipe is: 1 part Vodka, 1,5 parts Apple Schnapps and 2 parts Apple Juice – shaken not stirred of course ;-)

Oh one last advice – if you want to survive the challenge, sip slowly. It is so easy to down them fast but remember, it is a cocktail, no dessert! You won’t feel the alcohol until you stand up. So welcome to the A to Z challenge!

Yours truly,

Hanna

Let the games begin - Ludi incipiant

My friend Nahno McLein invited me to the A-Z challenge, a month-long blogging challenge. Idea and organisation by TossingItOut.blogspot.com is fantastic - thanks for this!

What is the challenge?

There are 26 letters in the alphabet (in English) and every participant has 30 days to dedicate one post per day to each. And if you think this is easy...than go and start blogging - you have the next 24 hours to start with the first letter...

Good luck everybody

Yours truly,

Hanna