Sunday 25 November 2012

Late Night Narcissism






Sleep well!
The Countess

Life Update and Creative Attempts

As I told you I am having a really stressful time at the moment but slowly everything is getting easier and better. My friends and my boyfriend are amazing, they always keep me in a good mood and are very supportive. Yesterday, the Count even came to an information stand we were having for the anti racism day next week, it made me really happy! This week was a good one, I got loads of things done and was even able to squeeze in some spare time activities.

On Tuesday I went to see Kafka's 'America' in a small rundown theater with my best friend, it was...strange. Strange but great. There were only four people on stage, 2 women and 2 men. They were dressed up as a mermaid, a show girl, a cowboy and a clwon in training trousers. Everyone except for the mermaid had dirt and smeared make-up all over them and those four played all the characters! often, more than one person played a character, they were speaking the same text at the same time and they constantly switched roles. There was singing and juggling and even magic tricks! It was awesome and definitely an evening I will never forget!
You can see some pictures on the website of the theater, I didn't take any. click me for pictures

In the evenings I did some crafting. It is nearly Christmas time and I love love love (!) Christmas so obviously I started working on my Christmas decorations:



Those ornaments will be part of my window decoation, along with other things. I am not really into traditional Christmas colours and motifs, my room is white, black, silver and pink so green and red would simply look terrible in there.

I also had to do something about my phone case. It was covered with a thin layer of black fake leather and now, after 8 months of living in my bag, it started to look really sad and damaged. I don't like spending a lot of money on something that is only there to cover my phone so i decided to get a little creative with the things I had lying around (aka a napkin).





And last but not least I made a candle!

It is completely made out of wax scraps from old candles, I only bought the jar. I like the idea of reusing things you wouldn't be able to use otherwise. I added a few drops of orange and patchouli oil ´to make the candle a little bit more special.

This is probably going to be a present for a dear friend of mine who likes selfmade stuff as much as I do.
I have this mad plan to make all of this years' presents myself... I don't have the time but who cares?! Most of them have to be ready at the 8th of December because my friends and I are having a Christmas meeting on that day and we are going to give each other our presents there already. It is a bit early but we are too many people with too many plans.

Do you like making or getting selfmade Christmas presents?

Have a great day,
The Countess.

PS: Blog post N° 100 and 40 followers, yay!






Tuesday 20 November 2012

Moments of Life

I have Instagram even though I do not use it frequently. Over the last few weeks I took a few snapshots of things and situations in my life that I wanted to show you.

My dear friend Vivi in her art and design college. There will be a seperate post about why I was there.

A bathroom stall door at uni full of BBC Sherlock stuff

Taking a break

Obligatory in winter: Vanilla candles and ginger chocolate

Stickers about veganism that I saw at a bus station

Have a great day!
The Countess

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Too much...

I'm sorry for the lack of posts... I haven't had the time to be creative at all, to be honest, I don't even have the time to write this little post right now. I'm sitting in an English class and instead of listening or working on all those things I have to do for my other classes. 
My Green Youth group has been planning a big event against racism for the 1st of December for more than half a year now and this month everything has to be finished. Don't get me wrong, it is great fun, I feel very good about being part of this important project but in combination with my everyday life as a student, private tutor, partner and regular friend it is simply too much right now. I know that I only have to get through those few more days and I also know that is is more than worth it but I am on the edge of losing my mind. 
Yesterday, I thought about all the things I still have to do (prepare 3 uni presentations, write 2 essays, read a bunch of theatre plays and secondary literature, see my boyfriend at some point in this week because we have NO time together at the moment, get new glasses as soon as possible because mine broke, meet friends who I haven't seen in weeks, be a good blogger, maybe sleep for a few hours and do all the Green Youth stuff...) while rushing to the train and I felt it coming: 
I nearly had a panic attac. I have asthma and I noticed how I couldn't breath properly anymore, how I was on the edge of crying like a little child if anybody would just look at me strangely. Everything was just...Too much. I somehow did manage to calm down and I simply took the evening off. I watched Dark Shadows, had crisps and slept for eight hours, it was awesome. Today, I feel better and worse at the same time. I am more relaxed because I slept more than 5 hours for the first time in over a week but because I haven't done anything important yesterday evening, I am even more busy today and the coming week. Oh well, nevermind. 

I feel like an ass for complaining. I love everything I do! I really enjoy studying. I love, love, love my boyfriend (which is why it's terrible not to be able to see him more often), my friends mean everything to me and  don't think I have every felt so good about being involved in something as I feel about the Green Youth. The problem is that I want to be commited to all those things and that simply doesn't work out. I don't know how other people do it, maybe I am weaker, more spoiled, less organized, too stupid, I don't know. I wish I could get out of my body to be able to work with my mind all the time because my body is holding me back with its demands for food, sleep and rest. I am getting sick, I can feel it and I know that I might end up in hospital because the asthma turns every simple cold into an bronchitis or a pneumonia and I don't want to accept this limitation because I do not have the time to rest. I don't want to rest. I want to live to the fullest. I want to see my friends, I want to spend time with my boyfriend, I want to be successfull in uni, I want the day against racism to be a great success. I think that's it: I want too much.

I know this isn't the blogpost you normally find here, I am sorry for that but i needed to get these feelings out into the world because I think there is a lesson or two to learn: We are only human, we need time for ourselfs and even if we have a stressfull time we should try to be polite and freindly to everybody because we don't know what is going on in other people's lives right now. I am grateful for every smile and every nice word at the moment and I am sure I am not the only one.

Again, I am sorry for the lack of posts, things will change, I promise! I don't even have the time to spell check this post...
Have a great day and take a rest,
The Countess

Sunday 11 November 2012

Amanda Palmer Gig

A few days ago the greatness that is Amanda Palmer was in Cologne for a concert with the Grand Theft Orchestra. My friends don't know her or her music so I didn't buy tickets but because she is Amanda Fucking Palmer and she is amazing she did a signing hour in a Saturn the afternoon before the concert. When I arrived, only a handfull of people were there, one of them being Sophia, a girl I know from the internet. We didn't know we'd both be there and were really excited to meet for the very first time. She had met another girl there and later we met a guy I know back from school aswell as another girl and together we went for sushi after the signing hour, I had the nicest day!

But back to Amanda Palmer:
She came, she sang, she played her ukulele, she signed, she was amazing. When she signed my poster and my journal, I told her that it was her who got me into feminism for the first time and she high-fived me. I, The Countess, the little nerdy kid from Cologne high-fived AMANDA PALMER! I had a serious fangirl moment, I cannot tell you how happy I was. 
After she left I went for lunch with the people I mentioned before and we showed each other the photos we had taken and of course the excitement we still felt. I am smiling right now while typing this... I'm mental. 

I managed to take some pictures while she was singing:














Do you have a famous person that you would like to meet and that inspires you?
Have a great day,
The Countess

Monday 5 November 2012

Caitlin Moran Appreciation Post

Caitlin Moran is the author of the funny and inspiring feminist book "How To Be A Woman". She combines humour, autobiographic parts with her theories about sexism and how to overcome it. If you haven't read How To Be A Woman yet, you should! I read it this summer while traveling and caused quite some confusion on planes, busses and in the hostel because I couldn't stop laughing. I would have never thought that a book about feminism can be so unbelievably funny. I can agree with almost everything she says, we have a very similar view on feminism. Caitlin Moran's theories and comments are always spot on and simply amazingly written so I thought I'd do a little post to share some of my favourite quotes from the book with you:

“We need to reclaim the word 'feminism'. We need the word 'feminism' back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29% of American women would describe themselves as feminist - and only 42% of British women - I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of 'liberation for women' is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? 'Vogue' by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF THE SURVEY?” 


“I cannot understand anti-abortion arguments that centre on the sanctity of life. As a species we've fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don't believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain and life-long poverty shows us that, whatever we tell ourselves, we've made only the most feeble of efforts to really treat human life as sacred.”  

"I realised that it’s technically impossible for a woman to argue against feminism. Without feminism, you wouldn’t be allowed to have a debate on women’s place in society. You’d be too busy giving birth on the kitchen floor - biting down on a wooden spoon, so as not to disturb the men’s card game - before going back to quick-liming the dunny. This is why those female columnists in the Daily Mail - giving daily wail against feminism - amuse me. They paid you £1,600 for that, dear, I think. And I bet it’s going in your bank account, and not your husband’s. The more women argue loudly, against feminism, the more they both prove it exists and that they enjoy its hard-won privileges.” 

 “What is feminism? Simply the belief that women should be as free as men, however nuts, dim, deluded, badly dressed, fat, receding, lazy and smug they might be. Are you a feminist? Hahaha. Of course you are.” 

“It's difficult to see the glass ceiling because it's made of glass. Virtually invisible. What we need is for more birds to fly above it and shit all over it, so we can see it properly.”

“For throughout history, you can read the stories of women who - against all the odds - got being a woman right, but ended up being compromised, unhappy, hobbled or ruined, because all around them, society was still wrong. Show a girl a pioneering hero - Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Parker, Frida Kahlo, Cleopatra, Boudicca, Joan of Arc - and you also, more often than not, show a girl a woman who was eventually crushed.” 

And finally:
 “Any action a woman engages in from a spirit of joy, and within a similarly safe and joyous environment, falls within the city-walls of feminism. A girl has a right to dance how she wants, when her favourite record comes on.” 

What do you think about those quotes? Are you interested in feminism? Have you read Caitlin Moran?
Have a great day,
The Countess