Merry Christmas!

Hope you all get to spend the holidays with your loved ones! I'll try to post again before the new year, but I'm not making any promises;).

Love,
Aena

Oh My God, They Killed Kenny Blocher!

Well, yesterday something happened in Switzerland that almost never happens. One of the seven Bundesräte (our ministers, together they are our executive body), Christoph Blocher, was not confirmed by our parliament, instead someone else from his party, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, got elected. I, for one, did not see that one coming at. all. Seriously.

The last time an acting Bundesrat was not confirmed was four years ago, when Blocher got elected and Ruth Metzler (CVP) had to give up her seat to him. The reason at the time was, that the SVP, being the party with the most popular votes, demanded a second seat in the Bundesrat to reflect their strength. Ruth Metzler not being confirmed had little to do with Ruth Metzler. Christoph Blocher not being confirmed yesterday had everything to do with Christoph Blocher.

Anyway, the SVP pressured Mrs. Widmer-Schlumpf not to accept the election. She did anyway, which apparently came to no surprise to the parties who voted for her - CVP, SP and the Green Party.

I'm not sure what to think yet. Mrs. Widmer-Schlumpf seems like a smart and competent woman and it's nice to finally have three women (plus the chancellor) in our Bundesrat, for the first time ever I might add. On the other hand I'm not sure whether the parties who voted for her instead of Blocher really did themselves a favour in the long term. Blocher is brilliant at rallying voters around him and he'll have much more time and energy to do just that now that he is a self-proclaimed Opposition Leader (the current SVP-Bundesräte Schmid and Widmer-Schlumpf will no longer be supported by their party). They may lose more than they've won in the long term...

One thing I'm sure of: Swiss politics will be quite intriguing in the months/years to come (at least to me).

Opposition in Switzerland?

Wow, looks like Blocher as part of the Bundesrat is a goner. More comments tomorrow, once we know whether Mrs. Widmer-Schlumpf accepts her election...

Yet Another Part-Time Job

Friday I went and got myself another part-time job in addition to teaching law & economics (which I'll only be doing until the end of January) and I will now teach English conversation, business English, etc. to business clients, my contract will be with this firm.

Other than that I'm still quite busy: I should be grading 59 exams right now, I regularly put my Sport-Abo to good use by going swimming and to the Sauna and I got myself invited to at least three christmas dinners;-). And of course there is still my thesis (now with new topic!).

By the way, Finland pictures are here. Oh, and I also had my first real CouchSurfing-experience in Helsinki last Sunday! I stayed last minute at a Turkish guy named Serkan's place and everything went smoothly. It really is a great system!

(Fluff) Friends

I got an invitation for the "(fluff) Friends" application on Facebook. I think I'll pass on fluffing my friends.

Back from Finland

Yesterday I got back from visiting my friend Immanuel in Turku, Finland for a couple of days (he's on exchange there). I'm also very busy this week, so a detailed post will have to wait. Don't get your hopes up though, I won't be able to tell you much about Finland, since I was definitely pro "party" in my inner "party vs. sightseeing"-debate...;-)

Damn Cold

...and I'm not talking abou the cold outside, I actually don't mind that. But I really hate that I caught an extremely annyoing cold just after I was thinking to myself last week how nice it was that I didn't have a cold at the moment while so many others did.

So today I'll meet my new professor to decide on a new topic for my thesis while coughing and blowing my nose all the time. I'm sure he'll be thrilled.

First Snow!

Avec Papiers

Tadaaaaaaaaaaa! I know, it was about time...but better late than never, right?

My Selfless Nature

It really is incredibly selfless of me that I agreed to go out and celebrate a friend's new job yesterday. Especially considering, that I want to attend this conference today (celebrating 25 years of teaching law at my University) which will consist of lots of speeches on legal topics and which I fear will be very hard to follow while hung over and sleep deprived. Ah, well, life would be boring without these little challenges anyway, wouldn't it?

Writers In The US Want Me To Get A Life

As of yesterday, television and movie script writers who are members of the Writer's Guild Association are on strike. They are looking to be compensated for all profits made via the Internet and DVD sales. Last time they were on strike was some 20 years ago, when they were demanding to participate in the sales of video tapes (VHS and VCR). The strike could go on for several months and effectively end this year's tv season by the end of the year or early next year, since no new scripts for the remaining episodes will be available.

Scripted daily talk shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are already off the air and have been replaced with re-runs.

If you speak German, serienjunkies.de has a good overview of how the strike affects specific shows, what exactly the writers are demanding, etc.

Having Fun Is Hard Work

Wednesday at Petra's in St. Gallen, Thursday Die Ärzte pre-listening party of their new album in Zurich, Friday HSG Alumni-Party in Zurich, Saturday house-warming party in Rickenbach. Phew. Now let's see if we can get some actual hard work done next week;).

So Much Love For Geek Humor

I think I've never mentioned my love for bash.org and german-bash.org. Both sites are hilarious actual transcripts from IRC-chats, and it's very geeky, so unless you're a real computer geek, a lot of the humor will go over your head (as it often does for me), but even then there's still a lot to laugh about (although it really helps if you know what WoW and pwned mean).

By the way, General Buster wants you all to know that he is not happy with today's achievements. At least the item "sign up for recruitment events" can be crossed off from the task list. Better than nothing, he guesses.

General Buster: A Hesitant Thumbs Up

Edit: I removed the Borat-picture because it was generating a disproportionate amount of traffic to my blog and it's not like I own a copyright to that picture...

Subject initially responded well to yelling. Continued to be generally more productive, but has not fully met all goals. Still much room for improvement. The beginning of a new week will hopefully aid efforts at motivation. Volume of yelling will be increased from level 6 to level 7. Adjustments may be made at any time as seen fit.

Goals for this week include signing up for various recruitment events, going swimming, preparing lessons, teaching, reading the book on international private law, scheduling dates with neglected friends and buying light bulbs. New goals will be added if subject, against all expectations, finds herself ahead of schedule.

Random (Morbid) Question

How do manufacturers of body bags feel? I mean, any business should be happy when business goes well. But in this case I'd assume the sentiments are a bit more conflicted...

Any other depressing professions come to mind? Like casket manufacturing? Grave digging?

Disciplinary Measures aka General Buster

So, in my last post I brought up the question whether the chaotic state of my blog was a reflection on my life. I have now come to the conclusion that that is indeed the case. I have horrible self discipline and being aware of this fact only makes it more terrifying because deep down (maybe very deep down) I am also a perfectionist.

Now, if I were a rich person (like, let's say our poor trainwreck Britney Spears), the solution here would be quite simple. I'd just hire a personal trainer slash general kick-me-in-the-behind-er. Unfortunately I am not rich and therefore have to resort to more unconventional methods.

As a child, I never had an imaginary friend. I think it is time to get one, although it wouldn't so much be a "friend" as a huge pain in the ass. I think it will be a guy and I shall call him General Buster. Hi Buster!

Buster is 2m tall and weighs a minimum of 100 kg (pure muscle!). He is very scary. Fortunately, as opposed to childhood imaginary friends, Buster takes up little to no space and doesn't have to be fed. I also do not expect other people to be able to see him. He has also served in the Army and has learned to yell at people and make them do stuff they don't really feel like doing. And yell at them some more.

Buster's job description shall be varied. Not only will he make me finally commit myself fully to finishing my thesis, he will also make me prepare my lessons at the KV well in advance, clean and vacuum my apartment once a week, take the stairs instead of the elevator and many, many, many more useful things.

Obviously, I will hate Buster with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. I also hope he succeeds in his mission.

I have given Buster permission to update my blog readers on my progress or lack thereof in an effort to up the embarrassment factor in case I should fail. Welcome to my world, Buster!

PS: I'm not crazy, I promise...

Damn, This Blog's A Mess!

In case you haven't noticed, this blog's a mess. I am still trying to figure out whether this somehow represents my personality and whether that is something I should be worried about.

The TV updates have stopped because all new and returning shows (except Men In Trees, Viva Laughlin and Samantha Who) had already premiered and therefore there was nothing new to add to the already exisiting posts.

The political posts were just things I needed to get off my chest, sorry. Now that the elections are over we can all calm ourselves again and I promise I'll shut up about this topic for a while.

In other news, Olma has just come to an end here in St. Gallen (pictures of my time at the Olma with fellow CouchSurfers from the region are here) and since I live right next to the fair that goes along with it, I'm happy to report I now have got my peace and quiet back.

Also, after struggling with my Thesis topic for a year, I've decided to drop it and completely change my topic and professor (not that the ones I had so far weren't good enough, it's just that I need a fresh start). So I'll be writing some important e-mails today that I should have written days ago but somehow I didn't feel like doing so while hung over...

Hangovers were due to 1. Seeing Berit for the first time since her return from Ghana (Wednesday), 2. 2Many DJs gig in Zurich (Friday) and 3. the aforementioned Olma (Saturday).

This week I'm looking forward to getting everything in order for my new Thesis topic, having my friend Elisa come over to my place on Thursday (to watch Battlestar Galactica together! Yay!) and teaching again on Wednesday and Thursday (ok, that one's more of a chore than a pleasure, but they're good kids and at least I no longer teach on Fridays!).

I am decidedly less excited about having to clean my apartment which is something I really really need to do. On the plus side, the new vacuum cleaner I got for my birthday from my mum is amazing so that takes away some of the dread.

Speaking of my mum, she and her ex (see the photo in this post) are opening a restaurant and bar together on December 7th in Goldach, they've got a preliminary website here, if you're interested. They hired a really nice Hungarian cook and they will be serving Mediterranean dishes. Wish them luck!

Spiegel.de Authors Know Their Stuff

I'm so happy! These articles about the Swiss elections on spiegel.de look like they've been thoroughly researched and the authors actually get exactly how the Swiss political system works! Admiring High Five!

In other news I'm happy for the green liberal party who managed to snag three seats, unfortunately none of which are from St. Gallen though, so my vote was kinda wasted. Probably should have tried to strengthened the FDP a bit, poor election losers.

No More Politics

That should be my motto. It's just so frustrating. The closer our elections get the more I get worked up about superficial statements and knee-jerk, irrational reactions from all political parties and the media. How very naive that it took me 24 years to realize that apparently logic and rational arguments have no place in politics. I find it amazing that countries and governments still manage to kinda sorta work (at least on a day-to-day basis) despite this. I guess we get the politicans and policies we deserve?

At least we get a colourful variety of parties in our executive branch as well as in our parliament. I am really holding on to the belief that seven people probably make better decisions than one in the long run. Plus, they've got power in numbers if there is ever a Politician Deathmatch. Leuenberger, Calmy-Rey, Leuthard, Merz, Couchepin, Schmid and Blocher could totally kick Bush's ass in a fight. Not sure about Merkel though. Chick's tough!

Sigh

Sigh. I wonder how long it's going to take until foreigners living in Switzerland will be asked by their friends and family around the world whether they can leave the house without risking being attacked. We've already had Nazi and Mussolini comparisons - are we burning books and destroying our local Kebab-stands yet? I almost forgot, we're Europe's Heart of Darkness!

In other news, I'll get to vote in Parliament elections in Switzerland for the first time this month! Yay, they gave me one of those precious red passports (well, not literally, I haven't ordered one yet...). I think I'm gonna go with the green-liberal party, so far they seem to be the only ones I even remotely agree with.

Today On (North American) TV: Thursday

Personal favourites:

My Name Is Earl (3x02, find last week's recap here)

Grey's Anatomy (4x02, find last week's recap here) - Yes, I'm still watching this one, though I am definitely not sure why anymore. Last week's season premiere didn't exactly manage to convince me that this show's still "got it".

Also on tonight:

30 Rock (2x01), The Office (4x02, recap), Supernatural (3x01), Smallville (7x02, recap), Without A Trace (6x02), CSI (8x02), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (7x01), ER (14x02), Ugly Betty (2x02, recap), Big Shots (1x02, recap), It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (3x07&3x08), Mad Men (recap), Survivor (15x03, recap)

Today On (North American) TV: Wednesday

Personal favourites:

Dirty Sexy Money (find last week's recap here)

Gossip Girl (find last week's recap here)

Premiering:

Pushing Daisies - Ned, the pie-maker, can revive the dead with a single touch in this Amélie-like fairy tale. Unfortunately his gift comes with a caveat: if he touches the revived again, they die, this time for good. And if he keeps them alive for more than a minute, someone else has to die instead.

I won't give any more away, but in my opinion this was the sweetest, most colourful and endearing pilot of the entire fall line-up. Creator Bryan Fuller previously had equally peculiar shows on the air, Wonderfalls (college drop-out gift shop employee at the Niagara Falls starts getting instructions from the toys in the gift shop) and Dead Like Me (18 year old college drop-out dies when hit by a MIR-toilet seat and becomes a grim reaper), which both only lasted one or two seasons respectively. Let's hope third time's a charm!

Also on tonight:

Criminal Minds (3x02), Back To You (1x03), 'Til Death (2x03), Kid Nation (1x03, recap), America's Next Top Model (9x03, recap), CSI: NY (4x02), Bionic Woman (1x02, recap), Private Practice (1x02, recap), Life (1x02), South Park (11x08)

Today On (North American) TV: Tuesday

Before we look at Tuesday's tv shows, I have to apologize - I managed to skip over the fact that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are on every night Monday to Thursday! And now you know. Good.

Personal favourites:

Reaper (1x02, find last week's recap here)

House (4x02, find last week's recap here)

Eureka (2x13, Season Finale!)

Cane (1x02)

Premiering:

Cavemen - Whoever thought it was a good idea to turn a series of commercials into a sitcom about cavemen living as a minority in today's society should be fired. Seriously.

Carpoolers - A sitcom about 4 guys who drive to work together every morning. Since I almost fell asleep just reading the premise, I'm probably not gonna watch.

Also on tonight:

Boston Legal (4x02), Bones (3x02), Law&Order: Special Victims Unit (9x02, recap), Damages (1x10), The Unit (3x02), NCIS (5x02), LA Ink (1x09), The Beauty And The Geek (4x03), Lincoln Heights (2x05)

Today On (North American) TV: Monday

Since I had to keep updating last week's tv show - post all throughout the week, I'll try doing it on a daily basis this week and I'll decide which format to stick with next week (Ok, that's a lot of "week" for one sentence...anyway):


Personal favourites:

How I Met Your Mother (3x02, find last week's recap here)

Heroes (2x02, find last week's recap here)

Weeds (3x08, find last week's recap here)

Chuck (2x02, find last week's recap here) - it took me a while to get around watching this one, but I have to say, I really liked it! It's funny, there's spy stuff and action stuff and the lead's likeable. Of course it may turn sour in the next couple of episodes, but so far I'd really recommend it.

Premiering:

Aliens in America - Comedy about a loser in high school who's mum wants him to fit in and decides to help him by taking in an exchange student. Unfortunately that exchange student turns out to not be the handsome Scandinavian they had hoped for, but a Muslim from Pakistan.
I saw the leaked pilot and I liked it, although I'll reserve judgement until more episodes have aired. If you're a Gilmore Girls fan, you'll be happy to hear that the actor who played the lead's father in the original pilot has been replaced by Scott Patterson (who was Luke on Gilmore Girls).

Also on tonight:

Prison Break (3x03, recap), Two And A Half Men (5x02), Rules Of Engagement (2x02), The Big Bang Theory (1x02), Journeyman (1x02, started watching this one, but found it boooooooring), CSI : Miami (6x02), K-Ville (1x03), Californication (1x08), Dancing With The Stars (5x04, recap), Everybody Hates Chris (3x01), Girlfriends (8x01), The Game (2x01), City Homicide (1x07)

Blah

I know, I haven't been blogging about anything else but US tv shows for the past two weeks, so you, my dearly devoted readers, will now be treated to a random blabbering post.

Turns out keeping track of all the tv shows I've been blogging about is really stressful, seeing as I don't only watch shows I like, I also like to read TWOP's recaps and lurk/post in their wonderfully strictly moderated forums (they've got a real grammar and spelling police there, y'all!). Until recently this was feasible, especially during the summer, with so many shows on hiatus and because TWOP's resources used to be too limited to recap too big a line-up.

But now that the fall season's back on, with tons of new and old shows premiering and TWOP having expanded their line-up to almost every single show I watch (they were bought by Bravo, a network belonging to NBC and they are now swimming in cash, compared to the early days), it has been impossible for me to keep up. Especially since I've got a life and stuff, you know? (At least that's what I keep telling myself)

Speaking of everyday life, I'm really glad my students now have fall vacation (starting Monday), which gives me a three-week-break from teaching. Maybe that'll make me get started on my Thesis? After all, wonders never cease, right?

Also, I've finally given in and started reading Harry Potter. I really enjoyed the first book and am now looking forward to borrowing the others from a friend. Yet another procrastination tool! I am so smart! So very, very smart. S-M-R-T... I mean S-M-A-R-R-T. (10 points for everyone who got this reference!)

In other news, I am having a hard time deciding whether to join the "Fuck off...I don't want to be a pirate/vampire/werewolf/zombie"-group on facebook or not. On the one hand, it really expresses my sentiments on the subject, on the other hand I don't want to insult friends who actually think those applications are fun and cool and who regularly invite me to be a pirate/vampire/werewolf/zombie. What do you think I should do?

In the last two days I have also for the first time grasped the true advantage of dynamic RSS-feed-bookmarks. They're awesome! I know I'm late to join the club, but are you really surprised? I just told you that I've only now started reading Harry Potter...

To conclude this post I would like to give everyone who ever wants to buy me a present, i.e. for my birthday / christmas / just to show their love and admiration, a hint: it's really really easy to get me something I like. Get me a DVD of a season of a show I love, including but not limited to any of Eddie Izzard's stand-up work ! (considering the amount of time I spend talking and writing about tv shows and the amount of tv show-DVDs I have handed out as gifts myself, it is actually kind of shocking that no one has ever thought of this). Concert tickets to a band I like! Easy-reading books by an author I like! Or if you insist on getting me jewellery, just have it be made out of anything but gold! See? Easy. Of course I will also not say no to most alcoholic beverages. I mean, who would?

If you need more gift ideas for me, just e-mail me! It really wouldn't be any trouble at all, I swear!

(Heh, I guess it's fitting I just joined ms. mac's group on facebook called "The Stupid Idiot's Crappy Group for Jerks")

Have a good weekend everyone!

This Week On (North American) TV: Week 39

Yay, this week the goodies are returning! I'm all giddy with excitement! Let's sort 'em by dates:

Monday, September 24th:

How I Met Your Mother - the funniest sitcom currently on the air is returning for its 3rd season. Will we see more of Robin Sparkles? Will Ted finally meet the mother? Will Lily and Marshall be able to live without Ted, now that they're a married couple? We'll find out soon and it's going to be legen - wait for it! - dary!

Heroes - ordinary people with extraordinary abilities! Two of them exploded in the season finale! Will they live? How will Hiro fare in 16th century Japan? And will Kristen Bell's new character have a totally kick-ass power? Season 2, er, Volume 2, "Generations", is finally upon us!

Journeyman - new show about a guy who travels to the past. Where have I seen this before?

Also airing: Weeds (!) (3x07), Prison Break (3x02), K-Ville (1x02), Two And A Half Men (5x01), Rules Of Engagement (2x01), CSI: Miami (6x01), Californication (1x07) and new shows premiering are Chuck and The Big Bang Theory.

Tuesday, September 25th:

Reaper - new show about an underachiever who discovers his parents sold his soul to the devil who now forces him to work for him. His job is to capture souls that escaped from hell and hand them in at the DMV. Looks like a fun show with a pilot directed by Kevin Smith (of "Mallrats", "Clerks" and "Dogma" fame) and starring Twin Peaks' Ray Wise (in a stroke of casting-genius) as the devil.

Boston Legal - returning for its 4th season, Boston Legal features a Boston law firm with rather wacky employees, portrayed formidably by Emmy-winners William Shatner, James Spader and Candice Bergen. Anyone who watched Ally McBeal won't be surprised that this show is by the same creator, David E. Kelley. But while Ally Mc Beal featured a crazy anorexic chick, Boston Legal features two crazy fat old men. It's more fun than it sounds, promise!

Cane - new show about two multi-generational Latin American families (the Duques and the Samuels) involved in the sugar and rum business in Florida.

Also airing: House (4x01), Bones (3x01), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9x01), Eureka (2x12), Damages (1x09), The Unit (3x01), NCIS (5x01)

Wednesday, September 26th

Dirty Sexy Money - new show about a filthy rich and accordingly troubled family (The Darlings) whose attorney dies and the patriarch (Donald Sutherland) asks the deceased's son, Nick George (Peter Krause, who was Nate on Six Feet Under), to take the job. He reluctantly does, for the money's really really good but I'm guessing he's in over his head - otherwise we wouldn't have a show now, would we?

Also airing: Criminal Minds (3x01), Gossip Girl (1x02), Back To You (1x02), 'Til Death (2x02), Kid Nation (1x02), America's Next Top Model (9x02), CSI: NY (4x01) and premiering are Bionic Woman, Life (1x01) and Private Practice (this time for real!)

Thursday, September 27th

Grey's Anatomy - after the depressing and disappointing second half of season 3, here's hoping that in its 4th season Grey's Anatomy will get its groove back. With George repeating his intern year, Meredith's sister Lexie being one of the new interns, Addison gone and the George and Izzie debacle still not resolved, I guess there's potential for it to go both ways, sucktastic or fantastic. Either way, I think we have to admit that this is a soap opera and relish the guilty pleasure it's become.

My Name Is Earl - now starting its 3rd season, My Name Is Earl is an endearing sitcom about a redneck loser who learns the concept of Karma and makes a list of all the bad things he's done and then tries to fix them. In the second season finale Earl took the fall for his ex-wife Joy, who was risking her third strike, and ended up in jail. It will be interesting to see how that works for the show's premise, since it seems that Earl will definitely be spending at least a couple of episodes this season in jail - I for one am really looking forward to finding out (and seeing Joy and Darnell and Randy and Mr. Turtle again)!

CSI - Crime Scene Investigation - must. watch. season 8 premiere. Need. to. know. if. Sara. survives!

Also airing: Ugly Betty (2x01), The Office (3x01), Smallville (7x01), Without A Trace (6x01), It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (3x05&06), Mad Men (1x10), ER (14x01, here you go, ms. mac! And it's 14th, not 15th season as I said in the comment section) and premiering is Big Shots

Friday, September 28th

Moonlight - a new show about a vampire. Yeah, I think that's all you (and I) need to know.

Also airing: Ghost Whisperer (3x01), Las Vegas (5x01), Numb3rs (3x01), Stargate Atlantis (4x01), The IT Crowd (2x06)

Saturday, September 29th

Nothing, really. True story.

Sunday, September 30th

Desperate Housewives - returning for its 4th season, Desperate Housewives will bring us new neighbours and (hopefully) answers to questions like: Will Edie live? Will Susan and Gabby's new marriages fail? Will Bree be able to keep Danielle's pregnancy a secret? And yes, I am aware that this is basically a soap opera, just like Grey's Anatomy...what's your point?

Brothers & Sisters - Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths (Brenda in Six Feet Under), Ron Rifkin, Matthew Rhys, Rob Lowe...need I say more? Ah yes, the show's starting its second season and we're all dying to know whether Justin will make it back from Iraq (my TV experience tells me: yes), whether the Walkers will continue to drink excessive amounts of alcohol supplied by their own vineyard (God, I hope so!) and whether RoadTrip!Sarah will make another appearance (God, I hope so even more!).

Dexter - this awesome show (based on the books by Jeff Lindsay) about a serial killer (Michael C. Hall, David in Six Feet Under) who works for the Miami Dade Police Department as a blood spatter analyst and kills bad guys in his spare time, is starting its 2nd season this fall. Yay! The bestest opening credits in the history of tv will finally grace my tv screen again!

Also airing: Cold Case (5x01), The Simpsons (19x01), King of the Hill (12x01), Family Guy (7x01), American Dad (3x01), Shark (2x02), Tell Me You Love Me (1x04), Curb Your Enthusiasm (6x04), Robot Chicken (3x08), Brotherhood (2x01)

Enjoy your TV week!

This Week On (North American) TV: Week 38

This week the first new shows from this year's fall season line-up will premiere in the US. Of course I can't possibly know about / be interested in every single new show on the fall schedule, but these are the first two three of the ones I'm curious about:

Gossip Girl: a show about filthy rich teenagers and their escapades, set and filmed in NYC, based on the popular books by Cecily Von Ziegesar. Narrator is Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars fame but I don't know anyone from the rest of the cast yet.
Gossip Girl premieres this Wednesday, September 19th on The CW network

Update: Oops, seems like Private Practice doesn't premiere until next week (Wednesday, September 26th) - my bad!

Private Practice: the infamous Grey's Anatomy spin-off about Addison Shepherd (played by Kate Walsh), McDreamy's ex-wife, who moves to California to start a new life with her old friends from med school at their cozy beachfront private practice in Santa Barbara. While the premise is stretching credibility (the world's bestest and most famous and most renowned neonatal surgeon goes in to private practice as an OB-GYN? Seriously?), I'm hoping the writers can make this more entertaining than season 3 of Grey's Anatomy which seriously made you contemplate suicide.
Private Practice also premieres this Wednesday, September 19th, on ABC

Kid Nation: Reality TV gone wild (ok, wilder). CBS threw together 40 kids between the ages of 8 and 17 (?) 15 in a deserted New Mexico town to fend for themselves. No adult supervision (except for the cameras) and probably illegal contracts. What could possibly go wrong?
Kid Nation also premiers Wednesday, September 19th, on CBS

As for returning shows, Sunday will see the season premieres of Shark and Desperate Housewives, and "summer" shows continuing their season this week are Weeds (episode 3x06 airs tonight), Eureka and Damages (episodes 2x11 and 1x08 respectively, airing on Tuesday).

For more infos on these and many, many (many) more shows see for example televisionwithoutpity, the futon critic, tv.com or serienjunkies.de (in German).

Enjoy!

PS: returning shows I don't watch but you might, premiering their new seasons this week, are America's Next Top Model (season 9, Wednesday) and Prison Break (season 3, tonight).

Merci Beaucoup!

...to everyone who called/messaged/met me for my birthday yesterday! You're sweet and I love you all!!

And to everyone who didn't: don't worry, I recently read a sentence from a list of "Things I've Learned" by someone I don't remember and it helped me make my peace with birthday-forgetters:

"There is a certain age when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal out of your birthday. That age is age 11."

And That's! How! It's Done!

At least I hope so! My final exam's over!! Wooooooooooooooooo-hoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! And it wasn't a complete disaster! So YAY! Anna is a happy bunny, yessir!

And Now For Something Completely Different

As evidenced by my recent posting activity (despite my claims that I wouldn't be posting for at least a week), study-induced procrastination is in full force. The most helpful procrastination tool is of course the wide wide world of web where I have come across some great findings:

How To Be An Evil Overlord

TV Lessons I've Learned

State Tetris Africa!

State Tetris France!

State Tetris Netherlands!

State Tetris UK!

State Tetris Europe!


May these serve your procrastination efforts as effectively as they have served mine - Peace out.

Let's Talk Politics, Part 3: Where do I stand?

Sigh. Honestly, I don't know where I stand anymore. I have never been a fan of the SVP's political "style". I also feel that when it comes to a lot of topics, especially economic policy, they're very self-contradictory. Unfortunately so are the other parties and if they aren't, I often find myself not agreeing with anything they say (I'm looking at you, SP...).

So while the FDP might come closest to my political views, they're currently a mess, so I won't be voting parties this fall, but people, with the help of my good friend smartvote.

As for the current SVP campaign - well, I can't help but think that if someone chooses to move to Switzerland also chooses to rape, murder or what not, I'm not gonna be very enthusiastic about paying for his prison time with my tax francs...so I guess we'll see which way I lean by the time we get to vote on the issue in 2009 or so.

Let's Talk Politics, Part 2: The current campaign

I think we've all seen the SVP's current campaign poster, with the white sheep kicking out a black sheep. First of all, I think the meaning of "black sheep" in German needs to be clarified: it normally does not apply to mere outsiders of a group, but is a word for people who do not obey the rules of said group. Looking at the SVP-poster, what it's saying is that we should kick out people who don't play by the rules, i.e. who do not obey Swiss law.

While the SVP is no stranger to racist connotations, I don't believe that the sheep is black in this case to say we should kick out black people. The SVP doesn't like Ex-Yugoslavians either, and those are lily-white...;-)

The whole thing is at the moment at the stage of a pending "Volksinitiative". The SVP has proposed a new article for the Swiss constitution, which would postulate that any foreigner, regardless of his or her residency status, will be deported if he or she commits a serious crime (i.e. murder, rape, human trafficking, drug trafficking, etc.).

He or she would further be banned from Switzerland from 5-15 years, up to 20 in the case of repeat offenders.

100'000 signatures are necessary for there to be a referendum on this. If the Swiss people say yes, this article will become part of our constitution, if they say no, it will be dismissed. The deadline for the 100'000 signatures is January 2009 and I have no doubt that the SVP will have no trouble coming up with that number.

I also believe that when the referendum is held, the new article will be accepted. The only scenario where I can see that it won't, is if the Parliament comes up with an "Gegenentwurf" (i.e. a usually "milder" alternative to the article proposed by the initiative), which it quite often does (and which sometimes is accepted, sometimes it's not).

Note that collective punishments (i.e. deporting entire families for the crime of one of its members) is not part of this initiative, although it admittedly is something the SVP is considering to propose in the case of minors repeatedly committing crimes (with the reasoning that if the parents can't control them, they should all leave).

Let's Talk Politics, Part 1: Why is the SVP so popular?

After reading several articles, commentaries and blog posts about the current SVP initiative and what it means for Switzerland, I felt I wanted to add my 2 cents as well.

Disclaimer: I'm writing most of this from memory, if I get facts wrong, please correct me, I'd really appreciate it.

First of all the question, how is it that the SVP has become so popular in Switzerland?

There are a couple of traits that characterized Switzerland through most of the 20th century and that the Swiss people identified with strongly: independence, neutrality, individual responsibility, a liberal economic policy ("Weniger Staat - mehr Freiheit").

By the 1990s the political climate had changed considerably, the social-democratic party was one of the strongest political forces and the other parties had definitely moved their positions to the political left, at least to a certain extent (mainly regarding government payments for various interest groups).

Then in 1992 a referendum was held on the question whether or not Switzerland should become a member of the EEA (European Economic Area). Most major parties (FDP, CVP, SP) were in favour, it seemed like a done deal.

This was the moment Christoph Blocher emerged from the SVP, up to that point mainly known as a "farmer's party" and started questioning joining the EEA on the grounds of Swiss neutrality and independence. Being the only major voice criticizing an EEA-membership, he was sure to get a lot of attention and he garnered a major victory for the SVP: Switzerland did not join the EEA, the Swiss people had voted against it.

As far as I know this marked the beginning of a pattern where all major parties agreed on something and the SVP was the only party to go against it, citing sometimes reasonable and sometimes very polemic reasons (with campaign posters to match!) but always having Swiss neutrality and independence somewhere in there; a concept which is near and dear to most Swiss.

Personally, I blame the other parties for the SVP's success. Because some of the issues that the SVP was the only party to broach, were major issues most people were aware of, such as failed integration of foreigners or exploitation of social security. All other parties had a policy of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" on all these problems, claiming that they didn't even exist.

Now, most people in their everyday life were confronted with these issues and had most politicians basically claiming that they were seeing ghosts. Considering this, I am absolutely not surprised by the SVP's ongoing success - they were the only ones assuring people that yes, the problems they were seeing were actually there and had to be dealt with.

But I think most people would agree with me that a party with nationalist tendencies on the right end of the political spectrum is probably not the ideal party to "deal with it". So in my opinion the social-democratic party has made major errors in judgment about the topics they do or do not want to discuss. Want to protect immigrants? Distinguish them from the minority of criminial immigrants and make sure the latter get punished for discrediting all the others. Want to protect and extend social security? Make sure it's not exploited, so the people who really need it can benefit for generations to come, without the money running out.

The attitude of the other government parties is starting to change, they are obviously starting to realize that a lot of issues can no longer be ignored. I'd say it's about time and probably the only way to curb the SVP's success.

Good Lord

I know the average citizen is not very interested in politics, but this is just sad (sorry, it's a video and only in Swiss German). The colour brown is commonly associated with the social-democratic party? Right.

Radio Silence

Until September 13th I will do exactly two things: teach the 10 lessons a week I have to teach and study for my last exam. I noticed today that the material for the latter is quite the mountain. So while eating and sleeping probably will become a necessity at some point, they will certainly not be a priority for the next 8 or so days. Wish me luck!

Surprise!

Surprising people is fun! Just proven again this Saturday, when Simi and a bunch of us (okay, mainly Simi) organized for noonee to be surprised at this birthday party by three (!) surprise guests and one really awesome present (a camera he had been dreaming of owning for a couple of months now). Methinks we were almost as excited as he was!:-D But probably just almost.

Before I Forget...

Happy Birthday noonee!!! You're the bestest friend in the whole wide world! Let's party on as if you were still 24!!:-D

It's Raining.

And raining. And raining. Have I mentioned that it's raining? In case you're wondering, no, I didn't get my money's worth this summer with my Badi-Abo. By the way, it's raining. Oh, have you noticed? It's raining. It really, really is.

TMI (Too Much Information)

The swiss department for alcohol- and other substance abuse problems' current campaign is interesting. The various posters say "My friend/brother/mother/son/etc. is an alcoholic. Let's talk about it!"

First of all, I had no idea Zach Braff's (of "Scrubs" fame) BFF (best friend forever) was an alcoholic. Dude, I'm so sorry! But I guess it's probably a pretty common problem in Hollywood.

While sure, I'd totally talk to Zach Braff about anything - he's famous! - I don't quite feel the same way about the people in the other posters. What are they suggesting? They sit next to me on the bus on my way to work and then tell me: "hey, I don't know you, but did you know my dad's an alcoholic?". Wtf?

Update: For those of you who don't believe this campaign features Zach, here's his imdb-picture:

BusyBusyBusy

Proof-reading a friend's diploma paper (60+ pages), helping out in accounting at a friend's computer store, teaching 10 lessons a week (and preparing them), starting to study for my last exam in September and finally having to get into gear for my Master's Thesis - always nice to know I'm not gonna get bored any time soon;-). Sleep? Who needs sleep?

Hallelujah!

My nephew Lars was baptized on Sunday, which I guess means he is now officially a member of the Christian community. I doubt he cares much at this point (he turned 1 in July and come on, look at that picture), but for the rest of us it's as good an excuse as any to get the whole family together and drink lots of wine along with lots of good food.

As for the church part, I'm gonna have to side with Eddie Izzard: "There's something phenomenally dreary about Christian singing". Also, I believe that Catholics believe in the teachings of Cathol and that a lot of them have read the Gospel according to St. Bastard.


'Nough said.

Pics are here.

Skype Is Not Indestructible

Those desperate screams you heard around the globe all day? Those were coming from people whose lives have lost all meaning businesses have lost all business today due to a major Skype outage.

Out of my list of places where I don't want to be right now: working at Skype Headquarters.

Bad Luck Sucks

Maybe it's just because I'm not used to it, but I'm really getting unsettled by this apparent streak of bad luck I've been having.

My nephew's present gets lost in the mail.

I lose my wallet in Budapest, thankfully only parting with about 20.- Swiss Francs in Forints and a Maestro card.

The one time I take the train back home from Budapest it has to take a detour through Germany and the trip takes effin' 12 hours and then part of the train loses power so there's no lights (a blessing, actually, because I finally could sleep a little), no air conditioning (not such a blessing when the train's full and there's no air), the toilet doesn't flush and the doors won't open.

I accidentally take my friend's car keys with me, discover it really late, have to send it back within 24 hours with DHL which costs a shitload of money and then they don't even manage to deliver it on time because they get held up at customs and then they want more money and I'm pissed 'cause it was all their fault, but luckily (ha! I did have some good luck!) my Hungarian friend talks them out of that BS.

None of the other teachers at the school where I teach manage to tell me that the syllabus they gave me won't be enough to fill the lessons and that I need lots and lots of additional material (which they of course didn't offer), resulting in me going through the course book in record time, at a rate where I'll finish the material for the whole semester by October. That can't be good.

See? Bad luck. Mixed in with mine and others' incompetence. Me decidedly not likey.

Update: I just realized what never fails to cheer me up: Spider Pig!

Yes, There Is Photographic Evidence

Go here.

Sziget Inside Jokes

• Shut the fuck up Donnie, you're out of your element!
  
  
• Neuken in de keuken
  
  
• She sells sea shells by the sea shore
  
  
• Bom Chicka Wah Wah!
  
  
• Day Zero!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  
• Spider Pig, Spider Pig...
  
  
• "I don't give a fuck, not a single fuck, not a single solitary fuck, 'cause I don't give a fuck, motherfucker" --- directed at the pouring, pouring rain Friday night

Sziget Is Exhausting

It's Day 4 of the Sziget Festival in Budapest (well, technically Day 3 since there the first day was called Day Zero, but whatever) and I have to admit, I'm starting to get a little rough 'round the edges.

So far I've seen two entire concerts, Manu Chao and Chemical Brothers, which were both great, and each night we drank inappropriate amounts of beer or boros kóla (red wine with Coke), depending on everyone's preference. Abstaining from hard alcohol has so far prevented me from getting hangovers, but the lack of sleep is taking its toll anyway.

At least I get to go home to my Hungarian friend Viktor's place every day, shower, get a proper meal from his mum and sleep a couple more hours in a real bed.

Although I think it's a shame I can't stay until the end of the festival (school starts next week and I'm teaching my first classes on Wednesday), I'm not sure I could take 4 more days...Again, I'm getting old, but maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Get A (First) Life

Heh. I've never had anything to do with Second Life, but admittedly the Internet and all its marvels kind of are a big part of my life - first, second and further iterations. I wonder what would happen if I went offline for a couple of weeks...Would I stop to smell the flowers? Would I suddenly find myself on this amazing career track I never thought possible? Would I fall in love? I guess we'll never know...;-)

Rundfunk.fm

Rundfunk.fm is an annual sort of cultural/DJ-festival with its own radio station broadcasting live from the Landesmuseum in Zurich. Friday was the grand opening of the bars and the "circus tent" (also at the Landesmuseum) and I attended with some friends. Unfortunately they had to shut it down by midnight so we went to another bar for the remainder of the night.

The Rundfunk.fm-festival will continue until September 1st and I think it's a nice after - work- drinks alternative if you're into that sort of thing.

1. August

The Swiss National Holiday was fun this year! I spent it with friends in Zurich, sleeping in, then going for brunch, swimming in the lake and then having a BBQ and watching the fireworks on a friends' roof terrace. This is how the Rütlischwur folks would've wanted us to spend this day, I'm sure.

How To Make Yourself Believe You're Cool

Do what I did last Tuesday: attend an illegal party in a forest on a hill, dance to electronic music while talking politics with a random swiss dude who now lives in NYC and then witness the party being shut down by the police at 1.30h. I felt so venturous!

CouchSurfing Will Change The World

Ok, maybe it won't, but it sure is a lot of fun to be part of it! CouchSurfing is based on the idea that it is so much more interesting and a hell of a lot cheaper to travel, if you can stay on a friend's couch. Since none of us have friends in every country, every city, every village, wouldn't it be nice to create a community of people offering you their couches? Yes, yes it would.

Of course there are lots of safety measures in place and you can deny any CouchSurfing requests you don't feel comfortable with.

Personally I have so far only hosted one person - I guess St. Gallen is not the popular tourist spot that I thought it was. Anyway, this Saturday I had the opportunity to discover what I like the most about CouchSurfing - big group gatherings with people from all over the globe, good food and alcohol. You can't go wrong with that! All this was brought to me and the CouchSurfing community courtesy of a lovely member in Gossau who cooked Paëlla for 130 people, let us camp in his backyard and even got us breakfast. Pictures are here. Thanks Vince!

State Tetris!

I have a new addiction: State Tetris. It is also a completely pointless addiction, since it is a game that is relatively easy to master and after that there is no point in playing anymore. But I just. can't. stop. I you're into something more challenging, try this.

Freeze!

My mum gave me a freezer which finally fits more than one bottle of vodka and a few measly ice cubes. I plan on filling it up with cheap sushi from Aldi. Yes, I'm crying, but they are tears of joy!

Hey! Teachers! Leave Them Kids Alone!

...But I won't! Hahaaaa! *evilgrin* Looks like starting mid-August I will be a substitute teacher at the KV in Altstätten, teaching VBR (Volkswirtschaft, Betriebswirtschaft, Recht) to 1st and 3rd year BMS-students. I am absolutely terrified and it will be a lot of work, but I think challenges are supposed to be a good thing, so I'll give it a shot - adhering to my University's motto: "Wir fordern und fördern Persönlichkeiten".

Walensee Is Pretty

This weekend was the WakeSurf Festival at the Walensee in Murg and Roman, a friend of ours, was competing, so a bunch of us decided to go and cheer him on. Me and my friend Petra only got there on Saturday evening though, so we missed Saturday's competition and Sunday's was cancelled due to bad weather. We managed to have a great time at Saturday's party though and we celebrated Roman's coming in 4th place at the competition! Congrats! Pics are up here and on my facebook/studivz profiles.

Ups and Downs

What's the difference? Exactly 18 minutes. It takes me 20 minutes to walk up the hill to my local outdoor swimming pool, pushing my bike. It takes me exactly 2 minutes to get home.

Speaking of ups and downs, my landlord, a beautiful woman in (I guess) her early fifties, almost started crying in front of me today and had to walk away, when she told me her husband had left her for a new (I assume younger) model after 3o years of marriage. Classy.

Gröschtigraben?

Does anyone know why the "Rütli" is called "Grütli" in the French part of Switzerland? Seems kinda random. Although "Prairie du Grütli" does have a nicer ring to it than "Rütliwiese".

Road Trip!

Alrighty. So, I got back from Hungary yesterday morning, convinced I'd be doing all kinds of stuff like swimming, cleaning, unpacking my bags etc. Much to my surprise (not), I didn't. Oh well, there's always "mañana"!

Anyway, Hungary was fun. We left last Sunday morning (only around 1.5 hours later than planned, which has got to be some kind of record for my mum) and headed straight to lake Balaton (biggest lake in Europe! Or central Europe! Or something!) and got there right in time for a nice BBQ dinner.



My mum's goddaughter, her husband and 17 month old son were already there and the baby and I of course immediately fell in love with each other. I think it helped that my name is fairly easy to pronounce for a baby, so he said it a lot. I melted every time. Have I mentioned that I have loved babies ever since I was a baby myself?


On Tuesday the weather turned swiss, so we decided to take our road trip up to Budapest, my mum dumped me at our friends' place and went to check on our little cabin in Leányfalu, a little village outside Budapest.

Wednesday then was our dentist day, which makes it sound a lot longer than the actual dentist visit was ('bout half an hour for both of us). Thankfully my teeth are still fine and I can still not empathize with peoples' dentist phobias. They were always my favourite doctors, they never hurt me, paid me compliments for taking good care of my teeth and gave me little plastic toys I got to choose from a big basket filled with them. I love dentists!

Since our dentist lives fairly close to the Slovakian border, we decided to pay my dad and his family a little visit. We had a nice lunch together, chatted a bit over coffee and finally it was time for Mum and me to get back to our cabin (via a pretty ferry ride at sunset!). There my mum put together the bonfirest bonfire that ever bonfired, we had dinner and knocked back some Hungarian Schnaps and some red wine. Nice.

Daddy & Family
Danube
Cabin

Thursday night we then headed back to Budapest to our friends' house yet again, Friday I went for all - you - can - eat sushi with a friend, Saturday was lunch with whoever's left in our batshit crazy family (and really, whose isn't?) and then that was it - we left Saturday evening, drove all night (can you hear Céline Dion playing in your head?) and you know the rest.

Grandma
Cousins
Aunt

All in all a wonderful, unproductive but eventful and very calory-fueled week and probably an ultimately boring post for all those of you who weren't there, which means all of you.


Have a nice week everyone!