IrasCignavojo LiveJournal

Meme question: Who would you like to be today?

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:31:17 GMT

...or who did you want to be as a kid? That's the question ilona_andrews asks and before I give my answer let me say that I very much would like to read yours.

Ivanhoe (video with Richard Taylor) or (video with 'Bond' Roger Moore) (PDF download) or Robin Hood (video with young Erol l Flynn), a role 'Bond' Sean Connery portayed as a man beyond his best years (PDF download of the classic tale)

Loved the arthurian romances and could see myself as TH White's 'Wart' (silent movie scene here) but never wanted to be Arthur, because I knew there would be a Lancelot somewhere - I'm more like Erec anyway, but Gwenevere is my RL daughter, so that makes me now more of a Leodegrance (not King Jared). Robin Hood I loved as Robin of Sherwood both from Michael Praed and Jason Connery, but the first series I saw as a little kid (dated then already, but inspiring) had this music .

Fittingly, even today, WHO I'd like to be is a grandson of Stephen Huxley and Gwyn, living "on the edge" of Ryhope wood (or as the recently deceased Robert Holdstock titled "Mythago Wood"). The place I live at in RL is as close as it gets I suppose, consisting of a medieval monastery surrounded by a natural forest reserve with pagan traditions. As for WHAT I'd like to be, that would be MEP, and I've still got hopes for the 2014 election. :)

Kein Verbot der kurdischen DTP - die Türkei muss europäisch offen bleiben!

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:03:04 GMT

Wettach und Özer mitreden über Europa
Originally uploaded by MagisterForan

Nach ermutigenden Schritten der türkischen Regierung was eine Annäherung an die Kurden und eine Lockerung der bestehenden Regelungen angeht, hat sich die Stimmung im Land immer mehr dagegen verdichtet - ein mögliches Verbot der demokratischen Kurden-Partei DTP (Partei der Demokratischen Gesellschaft) bedroht nun endgültig den ohnehin fragilen Friedensprozess. Für eine europäische Öffnung der Türkei, die ich wie viele Grüne immer begrüsst habe, ist aber nicht nur eine Erklärung zu Armenien notwendig sondern auch eine andere "Lösung der Kurdenfrage" als sie das türkische Militär viele Jahre wenn nicht Jahrzehnte lang auch mit Hilfe deutscher Waffen angestrebt hat. Dazu braucht es einen legitimen Gesprächspartner auf Seite der Kurden, den man nicht radikalisieren und in die Arme ohnehin radikaler Kräfte treiben, sondern als Gegenüber achten sollte - so wie übrigens die Menschenrechte der Kurden, um die es in der Türkei durchaus nicht zum Besten bestellt ist.

Die EU sollte, wie einzelne Politiker das bereits tun, in ihren Gesprächen mit der Türkei auf eine weitere Öffnung gegenüber den Kurden hinwirken und sich gegen eine Blockade kurdischer Gesprächspartner aussprechen. (Das obige Bild zeigt übrigens mich als Grünen Europapolitiker bei Gesprächen mit einem DTP-Vertreter beim "Mitreden über Europa" in Karlsruhe 2008.)

Die taz schreibt dazu:

Bereits die jüngsten Ereignisse haben gezeigt, wie gefährdet der Friedensprozess im Lande ist. In Bayramic an den Dardanellen wurde nach einer Messerstecherei das kurdische Wohnviertel gestürmt, einige Tage später verhinderten Passanten in Izmir unter "Kurden raus!"-Sprüchen die Fahrt eines DTP-Konvois durch die Straßen. Die angespannte Atmosphäre wird durch ein drohendes Verbot der Kurdenpartei verschärft.

In Ankara treten am Dienstag die Verfassungsrichter zusammen, um ihr endgültiges Urteil über ein Verbot der DTP zu fällen. Der Generalstaatsanwalt beantragt zudem ein fünfjähriges Verbot politischer Betätigung für 221 führende kurdische Politiker, darunter 8 Abgeordnete. Diese sehen in der kurdischen Öffnungspolitik der Regierung mittlerweile einen "Liquidierungsprozess". Der DTP-Vorsitzende Ahmet Türk kündigte den geschlossenen Rücktritt als Gruppe im Parlament an, falls die Partei verboten werde. Der Vizefraktionsvorsitzende Selahattin Demirtas sagte, es gebe "kein Projekt mehr, das wir unterstützen können". Bisher gründeten sich kurdische Parteien nach einem Verbot neu. Diesmal wollen die Kurdenführer nach Türks Worten "in den Schoß ihres Volkes zurückkehren", das heißt, den Kampf auf außerparlamentarischer Ebene austragen.

Door 9: A magic recipe for choolatealmond-addicts

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:02:47 GMT

Via someone who soesn't want to be linked to and -sadly- only in German. All the others: try this rough translation into english by google instead.

On the Pricing of Ebooks

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:35:40 GMT

(Copied from my comment over at whatever.salzi.com)

EBOOKS:

As for the ebook-pricing discussed by others here: As a consumer, collector of books and as a reader I’m willing to pay for ebooks which fill ~all~ of the following three criteria:

* Less than the current cheapest price for the dead-tree versions on Amazon. If printed prices drop because of the availability of a paperback edition or because the book is going out of print and the rest of the printed stock is sold cheap to wholesalers, please drop ebook prices accordingly.

* Less than 10$ or over here 10€ – more isn’t necessary to pay the author’s (and editor’s and/or translator’s) share and the overhead, if you don’t print. If that leaves you with some money, please pay a decent proofreader, thanks.

* Free of any DRM nonsense. No limit to the number of my own devices I can transfer it to, no limit to resale rights if I delete my own copy.

Give me that and I’ll buy it in any given ebook-reader format, epub, .lit, mobypocket or -preferably- PDF. At home I’ll read it on my PC, on the road on my Blackberry smartphone or -probably- my Palm Tungsten.</p>

* German WikiNews article on the topic: Buchmesse 2.0 – Der Kindle und die Flucht nach vorne

On the original topic of Black Matrix Press, starting 4 magazines and paying next to nothing to its authors, here's three posts and my comment:

Scalzi "Whatever": "In the spirit of the pulps and paying even less"

ann_leckie suggests not to get credits for your next cover letter - just write better stories

Jeff Vandermeer of PodCastle couldn't agree more: "Bad Credits Will Not Help You Get Published"

My answer to John Scalzi:

Thanks for the posting. When back in the days I had a littlemore-or-less-vanity press I was proud of charging only 1/7 of what competitors took – and paying out royalties if the anthologies sold well. And of course financing the single title authors with the vanity anthologies.

This Black Matrix scheme seems to be an offer which only works for those who desperately want to be a published author. In my country, having sold texts is a prerequisite to entering a writers guild in the trade unions or to get under the umbrella of the government-sponsored social security for artists, so for some Germans this might even be worth considering.
For everyone else, though, I agree: Paying nothing and not pretending authors were paid would be fair and square in comparison.

What do you think?

Door 3: Santa on a bicycle-sled, hailing from Germany

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:09:55 GMT

...via Telegraph.co.uk - and because it can't be political postings (or videos) every night for my Advent-LJ.

Door 1: Vincent by Tim Burton (around 1982)

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:35:19 GMT

NaNoWriMo is over, congrats to those who made or at least attempted it. Here's to you (and to all those, who, on this first day of the International Chocolate Festival http://chocolart.de have no door to open behind which some chocolate lurks), here someone lurks who is inspired or haunted by Vincent Price - and I don't just mean director Tim Burton.

If you're nice (and comment) there'll be another goodie tomorrow.

Tad Williams on Tinkerfarm - the ordinary farm

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:51:36 GMT

ligx.com

Just Traces in the Sand...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:00:05 GMT

Sometimes our lives seem like just leaving some traces in the sand. Sometimes, however, traces in the sand can stand for a whole full life.

Part 2:

I'm still the state of shock and awe, if you know what I mean. Just watch it already!

3 Minutes for 50,000 words - it's that month of the year again!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:27:39 GMT

What is this about? Just check out the video:

Watch it - Just 3 Minutes for 50,000 words

Peace in motion: A motion for nonviolence with the World March.org

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:15:07 GMT

I support the first ever World March that travels the world asking for the end of wars, the dismantling of nuclear weapons and for an end to all forms of violence (physical, economic, racial, religious, cultural, sexual andpsychological). Among the stations already reached are Hiroshima and Bethlehem, where Sami Awad of the Holy Land Trust held a speech:

Cry Wolf

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:42:14 GMT

Cry Wolf
Little lamb
If you have to

Try not
To get eaten by
Yourself though

Z'dun nessa
Oglok dorma
Man rastor

Burn skins
If crying havoc
Ever rests the soul.

(Scratched message on a pillar in the Philosophical Gardens of Dunster,
on the 13th day of the Eaglemoon in the Year of the Seed 429)

I came across a fallen tree. I felt the branches of it looking at me.

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:51:09 GMT

Is this the place we used to love? Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

...or was it Terabithia still?

I'll keep my mind wide open, without closing my eyes.

Oh, and seeing the fallen leaves from the trees in the forest around me, I let Zooey Deschanel ask you: "Aren't you glad that summer is over?":

(Comments welcome, to the open questions and to the stuff I only allude to).

Mein Zuhause, mein Blog, meine Gedanken, mein Herz, mein Leben, meine Welt...

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:39:55 GMT

Chorus:
Meine Stadt, mein Bezirk, mein Viertel, meine Gegend, meine Straße, mein Zuhause, mein Block!
Meine Gedanken, mein Herz, mein Leben, meine Welt, reicht vom 1. bis zum 16. Stock!
Meine Stadt, mein Bezirk, mein Viertel, meine Gegend, meine Straße, mein Zuhause, mein Block!
Meine Gedanken, mein Herz, mein Leben, meine Welt, reicht vom 1. bis zum 16. Stock! (Source)

This night I was in town late (after 11pm) and wanted to take a bus home. A guy at the bus stop across the street told me it had not yet passed and should be coming soon. Well. Maybe the bus was early, fact is it did not come on schedule... and not any time later. After a while I gave up waiting and tried hitchhiking, which tends to work well at that streetcorner - before midnight, at least. So late, there's only a car a minute in my direction and those who drive by tend not to stop. So finally I gave up and decided to walk. Walking is supposedly good for your health anyway, and with a nearly full moon the path was well enough lit to see most of the slugs without stepping on them.

On the way home I wanted to at least listen to some music, so I switched my BlackBerry Storm to "Mixed Music" and this is what I got on the way along the road through my personal Mythago Wood (to quote a Robert Holdstock title I cherish):

Flying through the air - Oliver Onions
Day of Pearly Spencer - David McWilliams
Forever Young - Alphaville
My Immortal - Evanescence
Mr Lonely - Bobby Vinton
Help me make it through the night - Kris Kristofferson
Mein Block - SIDO (which gave this blog entry its title)
Shoals of Herring - The Corries
The Riddle - Nik Kershaw

What a mixed music indeed. Above you'll find this transformed into a YouTube playlist if you want to go gently with me into this good night.

Just read and seen: Bridge to Terabithia

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:36:05 GMT

Got the DVD from the city library, but before I would watch it I wanted to read the book - and a good thing that I did. Read the book to both of my kids, to gwenw, whose book it was (present from a friend from Canada, given two years ago but not yet read before) and to eileenw who walked on and off the reading at first but wanted to stay in the end, identifying with May-Belle, I guess.

I liked the Narnia references in the book and the Terabithia parts in the movie. As for Narnia - thanks to my friend LK for the pointer:

Gerade vorgelesen: Bridge to Terabithia von Katherine Patterson, ein mit der Newberry Medal ausgezeichnetes Jugendbuch in dem es unter anderem um ein Seil geht, über das man sich von dieser in eine andere Welt schwingen kann, in das magische Königreich Terabithia. Klingt vielleicht bekannt, wobei die Chroniken von Narnia auch Lieblingsbücher eeiner Hauptfigur sind und ist doch ganz anders. Das Buch bleibt, anstatt sie nur als Sprungbrett zu nutzen, dieser Seiteund dieser Welt verhaftet. Erst der Film aus dem Jahr 2006, nicht zufällig von den Machern der Narnia-Filme, zeigt auch die andere Seite bildhaft, die phantastische Welt jenseits des Seils.

From: http://myraforum.de.vu

Comfort Shopping

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:13:56 GMT

I just love the comfort of shopping from the comfort of my own home - offline shopping, that is, with real people to deal with and talk to and get a bargain from. As much as I may be of the digital age and living on the net, meeting real people has its own perks. Every fortnight an old couple drives by and rings all the bells in this house to sell regional fruits, eggs and vegetables. So I got me 6 eggs, plums, blueberries and a gigantic zucchini - all for a meager 5,19€

Yummie. :-)

Pieces of Me 05

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:18:00 GMT

Part 05 of the series "Pieces of me".

Instead of Four Weddings and a funeral: Three Weddings and a birth and a birthday... and many without a funeral...

Weird stuff in my cup

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:10:34 GMT

Between my webcam and the docking station of my Palm Tungsten|C, between the mousepad from "Don't Panic" and the TelesFon ISDN phone - weird stuff in my cup.

Looks more like a potion from alchemy class, doesn't it?

Nicht lustig?

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:55:08 GMT

Unterhalten sich zwei Frauen. Meint die eine: "In letzter Zeit habe ich so Sprachschwierigkeiten. Letztens wollte ich sagen: 'Ich will Wein trinken.' Statt dessen sagte ich: 'Ich will Trein winken.'"
Darauf die andere: "Mir ging es neulich ganz ähnlich. Beim Frühstück wollte ich zu meinem Mann sagen: 'Gib mir bitte mal den Kaffee.' Statt dessen sage ich zu ihm: 'Du verdammtes Arschloch hast mein ganzes Leben versaut!'" (Source)

Caritas in Vertate - What is Pope Benedict XVI writing about?

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:17:09 GMT

As Pope Benedict XVI has given a new Encyclical Letter "Caritas in Veritate" (true charity?) on the social situation and development in current times, is was interesting to visualize what he is writing about. Here's the result from Wordle.com (you can enlarge it to see the smaller words hidden in the letters of larger words):

Concert and more in a City of Peace - Tuebingen

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:47:03 GMT

We just had a whole week to showcase the role Tübingen plays as a town for peace locally and globally. We had former UNESCO head Federico Mayor (left, formerly minister of education in Spain, translated by me), Gloria Cuartas from Columbia (second from left), the UN-awarded first mayor for peace and we had Ismail Khatib (second from right), the Palestinian who wanted to help end the violence and donated the vital organs of his 12year old son Ahmed, killed by Israeli soldiers while just walking, to save the lives of israeli kids, as shown in the moving movie "The Heart of Jenin" (see Boston Globe on this).

We had US war deserter André Shepherd (right) who stopped participating in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is the first to seek asylum here in Germany as US-war deserter. We had Israeli human rights attorney Felicia Langer (middle), winner of the alternative Nobel Prize and soon to be awarded the highest order of merit of Germany, we had evenings about the school shootings and the prevention of violence, and tomorrow we will end with a church service for peace in the Tuebingen Stiftskirche, where the first protestant sermon in all of our state was held during the early reformation. (See pictures including me and reports in German here)

This evening we had a concert with bavarian singer-songwriter Konstantin Wecker and I'll finish this posting with a song of his, which he sang at the end of his concert tonight. It's a pity you were not there with me - the whole concert was energetic, spirited and for me it was nice to have backstage entrance, was treated to wine, water and cheese and chocolate cookies and dolmadakia and... well you get the idea. So, without any further ado, here's the song:

Dreams

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:15:54 GMT

All the sorcerers being killed off until only someone called Haitla is left over on the list (which was visible on a computer display) / two girls discussing at a boarding school or hospital or prison to take to much 'bad penicilline' in order to pretend being seriously sick and thus getting off duty / me never wanting to be anything less than one of your (best?) friends if you read this / a public male model contest to save the Karstadt shopping centres which will file for chapter 11 soon / ...are among the more memorable elements of my dreams in the last days.

Meeting more and more people who tell me they voted for me in the local elections and would have wanted to see me in the city council is one of the more memorable recurring moments in my days. Oh, and Ben&Jerry's Cookie Dough is one of the more memorable ice creams

Song of tonight:

Recent Greenified German Blogposts and what might interest you

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:35:08 GMT

These days, after cutting off the LoudTwitter of my Tweets here, I wonder what of the stuff I could post here might interest you - maybe Leopold the new cat in the house? maybe the Wicked Witch of the West and why even in personal life it's not always easy to tell who's good and who's bad? maybe what I like about Guy Gavriel Kay's 'Tigana' and why I'm still slow at reading it?

The following are some of my more recent German blog posts:

Mein Wahlkampf. Ein Rückblick und Ausblick.

Das Netz wählt Grün - und (hoffentlich) JPA

Wahlkampfendspurt - 3 Tage wach

Mit grünen Ideen schwarze Zahlen schreiben - auch an der Haltestelle

Spieler verteufeln, Waffen erlauben? Gewaltprävention geht anders!

For those interested in the facts, I haven't been elected to the local, town- or regional councils, but gathered about 14,000 votes all in all - not bad, considering that 2008 I was busy campaigning elsewhere, for a place on the green list for the EP, thus being more away from this town than usually. I'm very happy with the green gains all over Europe and in my town. In my small historic village, the Greens have doubled their percentage of votes for the EP and gained twice as much as in the rest of Tuebingen, so I count that as a personal victory, as a result of my campaigning. Greenifying Tübingen was great fun. And as for greenifying - "Wicked!" was wickedly good, saw that for the first time live in the Palladium Theatre in Stuttgart last week, loving it. I went with ellifaey, gwenw, another LJ-friend who shall not be named before I've heard it's ok to do so and with a fanatical member of "Team Edward" (and "Team Robert" as well). Really nice.

That's all for tonight, folks - if interested in more, just ask.

Thank you for travelling with Deutsche Bahn

Fri, 29 May 2009 21:55:12 GMT

What I have tweeted today... (earliest first)

04:31 RT @kevinrose Wikipedia bans the Church of #Scientology - digg.com/d1sOjf - I've got mixed feelings about this reasonable move #

04:37 RT @martinhaase große #satire im #lawblog bit.ly/rRUoD #

04:50 BING! statt WUMS? = Bing Is Not Google. RT @bing Woz-Bing! Apple Co-Founder a "Big Fan" of Microsoft's New Search Engine bit.ly/6YEzY #

14:23 RT @gruenenrw #Gorleben ist besetzt! Auf nach Niedersachsen #solidarität bit.ly/ZYujh #

14:57 planned RTG on school shootings and Fritz Kuhn location for #green economy. Now #Ulm on kindergarten kita-buendnis.org #

20:18 85 min Verspätung werden durch ausserplanhalt mit umst. verkürzt. danke, bahn. #

Postings from http://twitter.com/wettach. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter.

Thu, 28 May 2009 21:55:13 GMT

What I have tweeted today... (earliest first)

12:32 Heute ist Weltspieletag de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weltspieletag - empfehle Fantasy-Spielfreunden einen Blick auf myrapedia.eu #

17:37 Gesamtelternbeirat #GEB in #Marburg hat es mit einem grünen OB nicht automatisch leicht. Fernberatung gemacht als geb-tuebingen.de.vu #

19:20 New German #blog entry: "Die SpitzenkandidatInnen der Parteien zur Europawahl" - see gruene.wettach.org #ep09 #

19:35 diskutiert die "Zukunft Europas" im LiveChat mit JuLi-Europakandidat Florian Berg ("Für europ. Bundesstaat") unter bit.ly/8XffI #

19:49 Jetzt @JosefWinkler live auf #phoenixtv zum Kommunalen Ausländerwahlrecht. Stark, aber auch gegen SPD-Dialektik der zustimmenden Ablehnung. #

Postings from http://twitter.com/wettach. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter. Some english postings are also available on OpenSource-service identi.ca

Wed, 27 May 2009 21:56:27 GMT

What I have tweeted today... (earliest first)

17:03 Für den Europagrünen Michi Lechner, heut auf'm Westfriedhof München beigesetzt, ein Gedenkvideo: bit.ly/OKAlG #

17:51 Gestern #StarTrek #Enterprise klassisch im Kino, heute StarTrek als Wahlwerbung? bit.ly/RYSu2
nett :-) #

20:23 the house I just had a look at will be my next #LJ entry. Now discussion on sustainable policies f. Germany in a globalized world #tuebingen #

22:20 Michael Kopetz (Wuppertal Institute) on sustainable policies: We need braver politicians campaigning for tougher restrictions+regulation #EP #

Postings from http://twitter.com/wettach. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter. Some english postings are also available on OpenSource-service identi.ca