Sports in the city

I already wrote about the pleasures of urban adrenalin sports and their number seems to grow with the size of the city. Since I moved to Berlin my sport life has blossomed. Not only I became even worse jogging addict and cycling maniac enthusiast (the latter is inevitable once you get on that bike), I also have the opportunity to do exciting city sports. Such as:

U-bahn surfing: survive the drive with a subway without holding on to anything (or anyone) and surf those waves of underground acceleration mixed with unpredictable movements of disorientated tourists. For details see picture above.

Spot the controller: is a common city sport suitable also for beginners. You don't need much, in fact you don't even need to buy a ticket. While enjoying all privileges of public transport, you will feel the adrenalin with each new stop, while wondering if there is a controller among passengers. You're right - they're not wearing uniforms.

Catch the red light: is a sport popular among car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. True Berliners can't be bothered with insignificance of stopping at red light. Red is good. Red is sexy. Follow the red. Except when it's the color of cycling track and you're walking on it. Then you should run for your life. Which brings us to the most popular of all city sports.

Dodge the cyclist: Yes, we are insane. Not only will we drive on cycling tracks, we will also drive on pavements, roads, streets and pretty much everything on our way.  After all those road hurdles we need to cycle it out. Be scared. Be very scared.

Cycle hurdling: Coming somewhere easy and on time is boring. Therefore we need obstacles such as:

• parked cars (upgrade: with opening doors), 
• delivery trucks unloading their stuff, 
• confused tourists, checking the maps, 
• coffee tables/chairs, 
• slow cyclists that drive in the middle of the track with the speed of injured chicken. 

You name it, we got it. Plain cycling is so 20th century, so bring it on!

Jump to the sound of sirens: I am pretty sure there is a limitation on how loud the ambulance sirens can be and I'm convinced that the ones in Berlin are well above any limit. So jump, as it will surprise you when you will at least expect it. Possibly when your mouth is full of coffee.

As you can see, life in the big city is never boring. Possibly life-threatening, but boring definitely not. Are there any other interesting city sports I've missed so far? Please, do enlighten me.

Intimacy

Some statistics imply that most of people is scared of public speaking and death. It's probably not far from the truth, however I do believe what really scares us most is intimacy. Fear of opening up to another person, uncovering the weaknesses and showing who we really are.  Fear of not being accepted by others is nothing unusual since many are actually struggling with accepting themselves.

Once we put down our strong fences, built to protect us from pain, dissapointment and ourselves, we are left with naked vunerability and mixed emotions. How long does it take before we are willing to share it, knowing that there is no guarantee or protection from getting hurt? How careful can one be when opening up to people? How fast or slow should you do it? Is there the right way?

I don't know. But sometimes it is better not to ask too many questions. It's possible to get hurt, shattered or torn apart. Just as it is possible to feel something trully strong and special, even if only for short time. Going through life wihtout giving other people a chance to know who we are and how we feel is quite comfortable way. Probably not a very happy one. I'm not willing to give it a try. I want to feel.

Nationalities

Is nationality really that important? Does it define us? Did it become an inherent part of our lives from which we can't be separated? Why?

Personally I don't think it matters at all. Sure, your cultural surroundings have influenced who you've become and probably also how you behave. But I don't feel like I belong to a country, I don't raise flags and I also don't think there's anything wrong with that. In words of Virginia Woolf:

"As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world."

I think nationality is too often used only to enhance somebodies importance or insignificance. To make a bigger gap between "us" and "them". Here's how:

Sports - I don't really watch sports, I like doing them. But how come that winning a game makes us feel we overruled the country of the other team? Does our educational system suck less because of that? Are we more happy with our government? Of course the true sport spirit says, it's all about participating, not winning. But then again nobody really likes to be a loser, right?

Death - I can't really understandf why is it so important to stress that none of Slovenians (or any other nationalities) have been killed during the plane crash. As if their lives would be more important than lives of other people. What is really the purpose of this information? To calm down potential relatives of people who might be on that plane? Don't you think they would be informed already and probably not by the news? To calm down the others, that there is not any less of us? What?

While we are mourning over death of "our" important citizen which we knew mostly from the newspapers, we forget thousands that are being killed every day on the other side of the globe. Is their death somehow less significant, because they didn't manage to achieve anything "important" while they were dieing over water and territory?

Celebrities - Everytime someone discovers something important or makes an entrance to public sphere, whether a pop star or a scientist, often we hear that their grandparents were e.g. half Polish, or they studied in the capital of this and this country. Like we would want to pin a part of their achievements to our country. To prove we are somehow connected to great minds. Of course we are not so eager to share this joy when it comes to e.g. killers. Nobody wants to brag about "their" socipaths.

So according to my experience, nationalities are mostly about US and THEM. I don't think there is THEM at all. I think it's only us. And we all matter.

Urban adrenalin sports

I used to think adrenalin sports are quite exciting. Bungee and parachute jumping were on my teenage "to do before I die" list. Now they are on the top of "to do if I want to die" list. Not because I wouldn't like adrenalin sports, but because I'm already doing too many as it is. Like walking through the city.

Being a complete bookworm, I own lots of books. So many that I still didn't manage to read even half of them. Naturally that doesn't stop me from buying new ones. So every time I see a bookstore, I have a two level adrenaline experience: passing and entering.

Entering usually includes complex dilemmas such as: do I really need it, can I afford it, should I wait for few more days... Most of the times they are solved by a swing of my credit card. There's probably no need to describe the "excitement" when the money is actually taken from my account. What goes for books, goes also for movies and CDs, except I actually get to see and listen to most of them.

My other daily intake of adrenaline is provided by biking through the city. It's quite amazing how it resembles the ride on a train of death in the amusement parks:

• disorientated pedestrians, randomly apprearing from nowhere,
• overwhelmed supermans on bikes, rollerblades and motorcycles, imitating the speed of light,
  
• drivers paying more attention to their phones and make up than to the road,
  
• cars, parked on the cycling tracks with drivers opening the doors only a second before the biker appears,
  
• people, throwing stuff outta windows.
  

Need I say more?

So I don't really need to do any extra adrenalin sports, because living in a capital provides me with all the adrenalin I'll ever need.

Women and technology

There is a common belief that women and technology don't go together. If that would be true every housewife would need a training before she could start using her kitchen.

I've been asked several times to help "make the presentation appear on the projector" by the room full of men. So I think saying "women don't understand technology" is just an excuse for those, who are either not interested in it or are simply too lazy to deal with it on their own.

However I could agree that women (if I dare to generalise this not at all unified category) maybe have different expectations and needs towards technology. And I'm not talking only about design preferences or various period tracker applications. There is an interesting debate about the topic in the comments of this post.

Personally when it comes to computers and software, I want it to:

• be simple (have good usability),
• be visually appealing (not flooded with colors and animations),
• allow customization,
• speak my language,
  
• have a bit of a personality.
  

Even though I am quite interested in the topic of gender and technology, I am still somewhat sceptical about gender specific technology. Firstly because "men" and "women" are not homogenous groups and most certainly not the only two gender groups. And secondly because attempts to find common characteristics in the gender groups usually means using blue vs. pink arguments.

So is it fair to say you designed software for women when it's not going to satisfy all the women? I think not. But I would definitely go for software with a little of personal touch.

Here's an example:
Beeing annoyed by endless windows popping up when least needed just to ask me if I am really sure about some action, I've wished I would have had different options than "No" or "Close". Having "STFU" or a third option "No. And never ask me again." did cross my mind several times. And I would definitely love to be able to rewrite certain commands in a more creative way. Of course that is not the only thing I'd like to change.

So what is the alternative? Honestly I don't know but if there is one, please do share it. After all the purpose of technology is to meet the needs of the people and not the other way around.

Shopping nightmares

Through the years I've developed a certain kind of love & hate relationship with shopping. Love part mostly refers to buying gifts for friends and family on my travels while the hate part more or less covers all the other occasions.

Especially when I know exactly what I'm looking for, which is in most of the cases. And all that because for some weird reason I don't want my clothes to be polluted with roses, butterflies, sculls, shiny and glittering shit or phrases like: "Bitch", "2 hot 4 U" or "Sexy".

So usually I would spend waste several days looking for a specific piece of clothing. What usually happens is that I:

• don't find what I'm looking for,
• find it but not in my size,
• find it but in all the wrong colors,
• find it in the right colors and size, but it looks awful on me.

Afterwards I could really use a drink, a massage or a therapist. Possibly all three.

This time I got lucky. After few attempts of trying to buy short pants, I finally got them - at men's department. The salesman didn't forget to kindly point that out several times and tried to offer me an "equivalent" female model. It was much shorter and what a surprise pink.

I'm sure they would go nicely with my tiara and baby blue high hills but somehow I found strenght to say no. After all Barbie might eventually claim her clothes back.

So I got these instead:

Friends

My social profiles tell me I got lots of friends. Lucky me. If those numbers were true I would go bankrupt every x-mas.

But who are friends anyway? I'd say someone:

• who loves and respects you and you feel the same way about them,
• you think about often even if you see eachother only every now and then,
  
• you can call for no obvious reason,
  
• who tells you to STFU when you are full of bullshit,
• who calls a cab and takes you home when you are too drunk to exist,
• who listens to you even when you don't make much sence,
• who might forget about your birthday, but will be there for you when you really need them.
  

Of course all of this goes also the other way.

So basically friends are people who know you, but like you anyway :).

Love you guys & girls - you know who you are.

Breakfast philosophy

I have a long history of "no sign of breakfast" behaviour. Sure, it's healthy and good for you but then again:

• Coffe and cigarettes ARE breakfast.
• Lunch counts as breakfast if you have it on empty stomach, right?
  
• Why waste time eating, when you can sleep longer?
  

So yes, I had quite some difficulties accepting the breakfast philosophy. And on the rare occasion when I could actually have breakfast, my fridge contained only things which MacGyver could use to make some weird kind of weapon.

And then something magical happened. No, not really. My ex's father had a very strong opinion that everyone should have breakfast. It was pretty much impossible to avoid eating in the morning. Jumping out of the window somehow didn't come accross as a very appealing option at that time. So I gave in.

And here I am now, a proud breakfast eater. Not only that, I made a whole ritual out of it. There is no day without breakfast. What I am going to eat very much depends on how I feel in the morning. But most of the times one of these two options will do the trick:

1.) Feelin' chewy: boiled eggs, bread & butter & salt, freshly squeezed orange juice

2.) Not feelin' chewy: fruity smoothie

before:

after:

And since my housewife genes are apparently kicking in it is only a matter of time before I make a philosophy out of snacks :)

The bag theory

Being more or less a typical woman I own my share of bags. Yes, I know how hard it is to resist buying a new one when you know you don't really need it. But it looks so great! And even though it's very similar to one or two of your other bags, you don't have that exact model yet. Shallow? Yes. Irrational? Very much so. Satisfying? Absolutely!

But I've realized that eventually you get used to a specific type of bags. So even though this new one has more pockets and my stuff should therefore be more organized and easier to find, that is not always the case. In fact my stuff ends up even messier than usually.

The problem of the bags with many pocket is quite similar to the problem with big bags:

• I don't always put things where I predict I would
• in order to find something I need to open all of the goddamn pockets or even repeat that procedure a couple of times
  
• I'm never sure whether I lost my phone or just displaced it in one of the overstuffed pockets
• when I'm looking for my Ipod or a pencil, I would need a flashlight to find it (a phone would do, but to find it...)
  
• whenever I want to take my notebook with me I have to use my other bag.

So what can I do? My rational sense tells me to become more organized and remember which pocket I use for what. But my gut tells me to get the hell to the store and buy a medium size bag with two pockets which has proved to be the most suitable for my needs. Oh well, you just gotta love the trivial dilemmas of the modern world =).

Planing a website

Being so involved in my work as I am lately, I can' help myself writing about it. Planing a website is very quite similar to rearranging you closet. You start with the desire to have your closet neat and organized but not lose much time keeping it that way. We all know how it works: when you're in a hurry and need your lucky shirt, you will find it, even if it means turning the closet inside out. And it usually does.

So you start with bunch of clothes and your habits of using them. Clothes you wear more often, the ones you never wear, clothes for sport, fancy clothes and stuff you want to keep but will probably never have a chance to wear anyway. And you don't want stuff you don't need to get in the way of your search for stuff you do need.

You also know the amount of time you don't have in the morning to dress up and what it is you're usually looking for. Old habits die hard so unless you'd like to spend a lot of time adjusting to a new lifestyle, you can at least make a good use of them. You can sort your clothes by color, size, type of fabric, season, type of occasions, stuff given to you by your parents or any other criteria you can think of. The important thing to keep in mind is the disorder should be adjusted to you and not the other way around, so you will know exactly in which pile to look for that t-shirt.


Websites are guided by the same "don't make me think" principle. Only you have content instead of clothes, users instead of you and well, loads of research instead of few hours of your time.

Painful as it might sound I have to assure you it's a lot of fun. And just as I don't want to spend my time looking for my dress, users don't want to waste time looking for information. Good planing will keep your closet/website in a low maintenance condition until you decide it's either too small or too ugly and buy a new one ;).

FAQ U 2

1. You don't eat meat? What do you eat then?
2. You really think you're helping out anyone with recycling?
3. How come you're still single?

So what are your FAQ's?

How to use public transport and survive

One thing that it's safe to say about Slovenian public transport is that it's nothing like German or Dutch. You can't rely on it, it's rarely on time and if you miss it you could be waiting for hours before another bus/trains arrives. So I guess there's no need to explain why people avoid using it, despite the ecological issues.

So it's pretty much love and hate relationship where love mostly refers to situations between 3 and 5 a.m. - a time when city bus is a true superhero of intoxicated party nation.

Don't let the simplicity of use fool you, public transport can harm your health - mental health that is. So you shouldn't use it unless you're fully equipped. For shorter rides you'll do fine only with:

• An mp3 player, dwarf hamster, Babel fish or any other device that will protect your from overhearing teenage morning gossip wisdoms, random phone conversation of people with no feeling for loudness and music of people with no taste.
  
• The look - you'll need to get one ASAP as it will protect you from having to talk to random people. You'll learn to appreciate The look especially in the mornings, when you're still high on melatonin. To get the look just imagine you're being picked up by a fat hairy man with a beer breath, whos only association connected to shower is golden. Hold it right there! Yes, that's exactly the look.
  

However for longer rides, you'll also need:

• A bag which you will use as a shield. As you will notice different people have different understanding of familiar strangers. E.g. some will want to get more familiar with you by invading you with their groceries. Other will want you to get familiar with their unique body odor.
  
• A book - good thing to keep you occupied in that priceless: "Do not disturb, I'm reading" mood. Do not mistaken it with a newspaper or a magazine - people consider those as a an invitation to stare across your shoulder.
• Balance - you'll need it to keep your feet on the ground in the curves. I've got absolutely no tips on how to get it but I've got quite a few on how to loose it.
• A theme song - it'll shorten and enlighten your public transport user experience so it better not be a ballad. If you can't think of any good theme song use a tested one - it's the best I've heard so far.
  

So here's to many exciting public transport experiences and do share your horror stories with your fellow bloggers. We know how to appreciate it.

STFU!

All those written letters can actually be quite romantic and almost as complicated as soap operas. Nouns secretly looking for adjectives, verbs being almost useless just standing alone and all those funny grammatical rules making such a good entertainment for some and such pain in the ass for the others.

Like people, some words are just more lovable than the others - some we are easy to love while others we persistently keep on forgetting. Quite sissy in their shape yet powerful as weapon: today words seem absolutely necessary and logical. Especially politicians are mouthful of big and important words, full of future and prosperity. Well, yeah, all right, whatever. A little less conversation, a little more action...

Sometimes I am wondering if talking isn't overrated. Can’t undo what you said and can’t always predicts what it will cause. Are there any words without consequences?

What if we could really speak without taking and hear without listening, like The Sound of silence suggests? What if most of talking is a waste of energy? If we stop speaking….would that make the world a better place?

Probably not but it surely would make it much more quiet and easier to fall asleep….

Dating

It's funny how dating gets more complicated as you grow older. When you are a teenager things are quite simple - it's enough if the person is cute and likes you. Sometimes it's enough even that you're both drunk and there. Not much of getting to know each other and long exhausting talks about meaning of life or your expectations. Of course most of these "relationships" ended up just as quickly as they begun. Well, at least that was my experience.

As you have a couple of "the wrong ones" you eventually become more careful about who you're getting involved with. Especially when you want to avoid meaningless relationships. You are now ready for an upgraded version of the dating game.

Now it's not enough anymore for the person to be cute. No, you want them to be smart, easygoing and fun. Possibly with similar music taste to yours. Somehow I can't imagine myself with anyone who prefers turbo folk, slovenian pop, r'n'b or Britney Spears kinda things. But it doesn't stop there, oh no. Political beliefs matter too. No conservativeness, no anti - ecological or anti-artistic behavior and most of all no obsessions with money, appearance or fanciness.

So what's the deal? Does it get any easier after 30 or do you eventually stop fussing about it? Maybe I'm just too demanding, having too much fun with "the wrong ones" or maybe I just like being single a bit too much :)

Bag of clichés' to go please

Clichés' are inevitable. When you talk to friends, colleagues, relatives or strangers they will just randomly pop out your mouth: How are you, what you're doing, have fun, wish you luck, happy new year, bless you and many many more.

Is it wrong to say all those things without thinking about it or meaning it? I think not. After all it is only a tool to start up a conversation or a cover up the fact you have nothing else to say. It might not seem so but clichés' can glue together fragile human relationships.

Let's say you run into an old friend. You had your disputes in the past and haven't heard from each other for some time. Eventually you let things go but now you don't know how to start or what to say. Clichés' sure come in handy. But does cliché remains cliché even when you really mean what you are saying? Can you tell the difference between being polite and sincere? Can clichés' hurt people when they mistake them for real feelings? Does that show they have a value?

There's something ironically cheap about them. Nevertheless I can't help wondering whether they don't hide a treasure underneath the faded surface. Even when it seems we don't really talk anymore but exchange clichés' instead.

DJ's favourite dilemmas

Once you start Deejaying, you figure out there are three types of music:

1. Music you listen to and also play at the parties,
2. Music others want you to play (and most of the times doesn't fit your taste at all),
3. Music you listen to but only play for yourself.

Sooner or later every DJ faces some crises in connection to those three point. Firstly, music you like and play is not necessarily music people know and want to hear. Empty dance floor could feel even worse than embarrassing yourself on first date so you have to take compromises. You always prepare few hits people know and you like. However, I am still quite reluctant to play commercial music only. Regardless the situation, I'd always try to fit in some indie rock. I like t think of it as music education but some obviously consider it as an invitation. So they come and complain about it.

Which brings us to our second and probably most popular DJ dilemma: music wishes. I know exactly how it feels to want to hear a song you think would fit in perfectly. Come to think of it I've had quite a few music wishes up till now. To be completely honest, talking to DJs was pretty much my regular activity. But once you are on the other side, it just becomes annoying. Not so much because of distractions as because of realising people want to listen to Britney Spears, turbo folk and Slovenian pop. Saying you don't have that exact CD doesn't really help as they will bring their own. The Iron Lady ways right: JUST SAY NO!

And of course there is also music you like and listen to, but would not play for others. Most of the times because people can't dance to it, nobody knows it (apart from you and your friends), nobody heard about that artist or it is just not your style. For instance Frank Sinatra: I love his work since I was a teenager and his double CD was the only valentines special offer I'd ever buy. To myself of course. Even cynical darkers have soft moments now and then. Normally I don't share my Frankie boy but this time I'll make an exception. This one is really worth it.:

Familiar strangers

Do you meet often same faces on your way to work, on the bus or at the groceries? Strangers, you don't really know but seem to hang around at the same time as you? Good, then I haven't entered the Twilight zone yet.

First time I heard about familiar strangers was at psychology class and since then I've had quite few of them. Faces you meet so often you feel like starting to say hello. Luckily you remember you do live in Slovenia, a small country where inhabitants don't really appreciate spontaneousness or greetings from random strangers. So what if they are familiar, I guess everyone is once your population count stops at about 2 million.

By now I had enough familiar strangers to have a small dinner party and I'd definitely invite these ones:

• Elevator man: He was my daily deja vu experience. Eventually we politely nodded our heads when he entered and stared at our feet until we hit the ground floor. Occasionally we meet in the street and politely try to avoid each other. I guess it's just not the same without an elevator.
  


• Alternative darker: Older man I still meet quite often on different occasions and locations. Only after I found out he's a member of one of my favourite bands is when I started feeling like a stalker. Fetalij probably knows best how that is ;).


• Overdressed chick: Though it is very nice to see people who look like people early in the morning, I couldn't help admiring her ability to walk in those high hills and such a short skirt. My attempt to pull something similar in long but tight dress ended up after 10 minutes in nearest shoe shop. I bought a pair of plain sandals and threw away the chic ones I was wearing. I give up, I'm just not a lady material.
  


• Older couple: They are possibly the most romantic couple in their 60's or 70's I've ever met. Guy is walking with crutches so they have this slow long walks through the city but still hold hands every time. They just make me wanna hug them.


• A photographer: First time I saw her was on a Depeche mode concert and since then she just keeps on appearing around on almost daily bases. OK, I admit she is kinda good looking and that might be the reason I remembered her.
  


• Artist on a bike: or at least that is how he looks like to me. Tall skinny hippy looking like guy who doesn't wear shoes no matter what the season. Even though he could be considered as fair critique of shoe industry he probably just like his foot bare. With latest shoe fashion who could blame him.

Of course these are not all. There are many more but enough about mine, let's hear about yours. Any familiars in your life?

Sweet dreams

Everyone has theirs, right? I certainly hope so 'cause I can't imagine life without dreams. When you are little, you dream of becoming a pilot, movie star or ballerina. As a teenager you dream of getting married by a certain person and having family. O.k., maybe not.

The point is some of the dreams might change as you grow up, but some just remain the same all the time. Do you have any dreams like that?

It could be the fool full moon effect but lately I've been thinking a lot about my dreams. Of course I got some tempting inspiration that made me almost smell them.

The question is am I bold enough to follow them? Are you?

Facebook obsession

Generally I talk a lot but somehow prefer face to face chats. Being internet addict as I am I got quite domestic with Skype, Messenger and communities like MySpace. But eventually you have to draw a line somewhere. New communities are spreading around the web faster than STDs and it's almost impossible to keep track of them all.

Occasionally I would get an invitation from my friends to join some "blah" community they are using. At the beginning I joined a couple but never really used them. However they never stopped informing me how big my network is and how many friends I've got. How did they know I was desperate for more spam? Eventually I decided not to join any more communities, communicators or whatever new stuff they come up with. Like ever. It's kinda nice people want me to be on line more often but I really don't think it's possible. Unless I plug a cable into my veins.

Anyhow, in past two weeks I got several invitations to join Facebook. What's the story with Facebook anyway? Seems lately people are somehow getting obsessed with it. Even if I try I can't find any good reasons to make me wanna open an account. Just to make sure I'll meet my friends mostly online while I'm working from home and waiting for my pizza to be delivered? Don't think so.

I like my daily off line time and I need my chatty little meetings for coffee, gossip or just to say hello. I refuse to become a face in some on line community. I like my friends face to face. As often as I can.

More about Facebook obsession

Hooked on reality

Now generally I don't enjoy watching reality shows and try to avoid them if only possible, It shouldn't be too difficult anyway since I don't even have a TV).

By now I managed to avoid both seasons of Bar (allright, I admit i saw 3 episodes of the first season) and Big brother. But got totally hooked on American next topmodel.

How on earth could that ever happen since:

• I could care less about latest fashion trends,
  
• I don't care about super models,
• I don't really like Tyra Banks.

How about because of illegally cute Kim Stolz. She's absolutely gorgeous even though she doesn't win the 5^th season. I'd vote her back in any time.

And YES, I do bug people on Saturdays to let me see few more episodes. Goddamn reality shows really get you hooked....

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