Elfy

10.000 and ... 10?

elfy — Tue, 16 May 2017 23:09:29 GMT

I'm walking 10.000 steps daily now. Well, not each day and not since long, but I am around this number since 2 weeks or so. Who would've thought. Walking to work is roughly 2600 steps I think, so going there and back is a little more than 5000. Going to the supermarket around midday is another 1000. That means I have to fit in another 2 walks each 15-20 minutes to reach my goal daily. Not very easy. Gym days help, as cardio on the cross-thingy counts and 40 mins mean another 4500 to 5000 steps. Walking to the gym or home is roughly 2800 steps.

Zorn is in holiday and I stayed in the office, the ideal plan would have been for me to join her and the group of friends she went to the netherlands with, but it was impossible, workwise. Either she could have gone or I, but not the both of us. I'm happy for her to have a relaxing week, but also sad I couldn't join. I want holidays. As in, going somewhere, relaxing. But it costs money and, meh. Well, WGT is around the corner, so that is 6 days of camping with friends and seeing bands and dancing and stuff. I look very much forward to that. I hope it will be very warm and not rainy.

For reasons I am trying to come up with a 10 (?) point list of little things that always make me (very) happy. So far I've got:

1. Singing birds. I really love hearing birds when outside. Robins and blackbirds are among my favorites.
2. Riding my bike over loose plates in the sidewalk and hearing the clack-clack that it makes.
3. Buying watermelon and eating it and it's perfectly ripe and sweet.
4. Listening to very slow moving freight trains passing by at night.
5. When I stop with my bike at a traffic light and my handlebar is in the perfect position to lean onto something so I don't have to get off my bike and balancing is effortless.
6. The sun shining through leaves of a tree.
7. Watching sunsets, the stars and northern lights. I'll never get tired of that.
8. Riding my bike through the sleeping city very late at night in summer.
9. Small furry domesticated animals (cats, dogs, rats, ...) falling asleep on me. Ok, would probably work with reptiles and birds, too.

This is what I got so far. I am surprised how much involves sounds, as I am usually very sensitive with sounds. Like, a lot (misophonia, I guess).
There is more stuff, but the other stuff I can think of right now involves other humans and somehow I feel that is a second (but also important) list. It has things like:

1. Getting a massage. It is #1 for a reason and honestly, could be on this list several times. I am a sucker for massages. I love them and I will love you if you massage me. Effort is usually enough, you don't have to be trained to do it. Nearly any massage will do. I love them. So, so, so much. Really. Nothing is better.
2. Random strong connections with strangers. A very honest smile. Sitting next to each other in the tram and legs touch on purpose. Or even fingers. I am not talking about totally random strangers, but about people you randomly encounter, but instantly like a LOT, the chemistry is just right etc. These happenings are very, very rare.
3. Being hugged in the right way. My ideal hugger was a guy I barely knew and I haven't seen him in 15 years. I *think* his name was Jan, but I am not sure. His nick online (but I don't know where) was cmdr_keen, I am not sure why I still know this. He had a lot of acne-scars, but I guess he was my type, I really liked him. And he really gave the best hugs, it was amazing. Tight (but not suffocating) and honest, totally unafraid, very confident, close with the legs (as in, opposed to people who lean very much forward to hug). I'm not sure why his hug stuck with me so much, I really barely knew him (I saw him - if at all - once a week at the disco and we didn't know each other well).
4. Being tied up. It is very silly and questionable that I don't put more effort into being tied up, considering the few times it's been done I liked it so much. And that it is probably very easy to find people willing to tie me up.
5. Going out to dance with friends and being in a discothek that is filled with people who enjoy themselves. Yeah, large groups of people like that give me energy. It often makes me feel like an emotion-vampire, as in ... all these vibes from other humans give me a boost.
6. Did I mention getting a massage? I did, yeah, but I have to, again. Really. It's my non-plus-ultra. Do it and I will love you. I am known to bringing massage oil to the discothek in hopes of getting massaged. I might aske near-strangers to massage me even (I once got the greatest ear-massage (yes) in a pub by a total stranger!).

I really need to sleep.
But I want to complete the lists at some point. I will think about more stuff ... I'll see what I can come up with.

LJ 18th anniversary

elfy — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 12:41:45 GMT

More recs and sugar

elfy — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 08:43:37 GMT

I kind of binge watched Travelers on Netflix. Not completely in one sitting, but especially the second part of season 1 was finished in two evenings and that only because I didn't want it to be over on the first of the two evenings. Noooow I have to wait till autumn for more, oh my!

The show is about five time-travelers from the future (duh) who come to our time. They do so by taking over the bodies of people who are about to die. That means for others they don't die, so the travelers have to go on with the lives of their hosts all while a) getting used to the 21st century and b) doing the tasks they were sent back for. It's not very sci-fi heavy, imho, certainly not what I would call hard sci-fi. It plays today (the future is never shown, just talked about) and there are not many futuristic gadets - they couldn't bring any, so anything futuristic they need is something they have to build.

I really love the characters somehow and I totally enjoy the moments when it's about them personally and not the big plot. I mean, that is interesting as well, I just enjoy the personal struggles even more.

So, yeah, I recommend this show :)

* * * * * * *
Very unrelated rec: A while ago at Zorns place while cooking a spice called "Cafe de Paris" was used. I really liked it and today bought my own and already used it on some vegetables I fried in a pan - super tasty, if you ask me! It's a mix of many, many spices. Roughly these ones, but I think the one I bought has a little different ingredients, seems to be the same like with curry, always a little different: Turmeric, ginger, allspice, fennel, pepper, coriander, cumin, mustard seeds, fenugreek, chilli, paprika, onion, garlic, celery seeds, cardamom, thyme, tarragon, dill, marjoram, parsley.

* * * * * * *
Ate no sugar for one week now. The sweetest things I had were Ketchup, Joopie-Sauce and fruits. And well, I did add two small spoons of sugar to my vegetable lasagna sauce because that is just how I make it, but that was a biiig pan full, so I counted it as spicing which it was, essentially.

How was it? Erg, hard. The first two or three days I was very tired, but I am not sure I can say it was because of the lack of sugar (rather lack of sleep). I often craved sweet stuff and constantly had to fight the urge not to simply eat or drink something sweet. That also didn't vanish after a few days. Maybe a week wasn't enough? Well, I didn't cheat even if I could have often and I'm proud of that. But this morning, now that the week is over, I really had to eat a slice of bread with Nusspli (something like Nutella/a chocolate spread). And no, it was not "too sweet".
I'll see how the next days go. I'll try not to indulge too much and go back to where I was before this week. I might skip sweet drinks a little while longer or if I *really* have to drink something sweet will try to diet/zero versions. I'll see.

Sugar - and Naomi

elfy — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 23:00:20 GMT

So, the past weeks I've often felt like half my diet consists of sweets. I ate SO much marzipan, emptied a 1350g (!!!) box of "sour cucumbers" (actually very sweet gummybear-style stuff) on my own, drank a lot of coke and other sweet drinks, etc etc. It was really ... awesome and horrible. I love sweet stuff. But I am sure it was too much. I didn't gain weight - or if, just very little, but I still felt like I am eating too many sweets. Really. SO many, ALL the time.

So I decided to not eat sugar* for a week. Not all of lent or so, but ... a week. That seems doable. Today was the first day. I managed - I ate two slices of bread in the morning with egg salad, salad, tomato and some turkey, another slice with the same stuff around midday, plus a banana. In the evening I made a tortilla, but with paprika, tomato and chard, which was quite tasty. I had some ketchup with it, the only thing I maybe should have left out, but, yeah. The craving is there, thou. We have a lot of sweets at home and not simply eating just a small piece ... gah. But I want to get through with that one week! Sugar is a drug and booooy do I notice it.

* With sugar I mean mostly sweets and sugary drinks and probably all sorts of cakes and similar. I'll not avoid fruit, I *might* eat something like joghurts or quark if it doesn't have too much sugar, but will not eat chocolate pudding and similar. I'll not eat Nusspli (like Nutella), I am not sure about marmelade, but will probably skip that, too. But it's in the grey area for me. So all this is more about getting rid of sweets and sweet snacks/drinks specifically.

It's not a lifestyle change, I'm not doing it to diet some more, it's really just because I noticed I eat an ungodly amount of sugar and I need to try and get a grip on that again.
I'll try not to replace the sweet snacks for salty ones in that week, but will try to snack on fruit and veggies if I have to.
I'll tell you how it went!

* * * * *
On a very different note, I got the results from Naomis surgery. It was a tumor, but a benign one, so ... all is fine! The wound is healing fine, no cone of shame needed anymore, cat is basically back to her old self, yay!

Gimme more

elfy — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 09:24:12 GMT

Just how good is sense8?
I mean, it's like original content fanfiction that you threw a lot of money at to make a series out of it.
Unfortunatly I already watched the whole first season and the christmas special.
I want more!
I know, I know ... season 2 is coming soon. Still! Now!
Any other fans here?

* * * * *
It's carnival time here. Thursday was our annual potato-pancake party, which was a bit smaller than the last years, but still nice. We also found a spot in a bar close buy to confinue partying afterwards and it was fun. I was Batman and Thomas was Robin. Zorn looked super awesome, she was Poison Ivy and actually had dyed her hair red. It looks so good! Also, I flirted a bit and got a kiss or two and well, it was nice.
We went home around 9pm and Thomas and our sleepover guest went to bed at 11pm. I was awake until 4am, as I could not sleep when all these existential life questions came back to me.
Friday was spent at home doing some work and not much else.
Today is more carnival activity.

Random bits

elfy — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 16:23:50 GMT

* Naomi has to have surgery. She has a small lump over her eye, which has been there a few months now. First, when I noticed it, I thought it's maybe from a scratch or so. Went to the vet as it didn't go away. Vet suggested it could be an insect sting, which seemed strange to me, as at this point it had been there at least 2-3 weeks. She gave her antibiotics and some other stuff.
Well, as guessed, that didn't help much. It was just there. But it also didn't seem to bother her. My birthday came and I had invited a friend who is also a vet and asked her to take a look. She said she thinks it's harmless, probably just a lump of fat, something that can happen with old age in cats. But she also said if I am concerned she can come over some other time with stuff to poke it and see what's inside. It took a longer while to get a date for that with her, but two weeks ago she was finally here and poked it and took some samples. These were sent to the lab. Aaaaand well, she called me a week ago and told me, okay, it is *not* as harmless as she hoped, but also not yet bad. But the cells are starting to change (into cancer) so it should get removed soon. I now made a date in a clinic she recommended and so Naomi will have the little lump (it's really only half a pea in size) removed and it will get tested again. All that will cost around 500 Euro, which makes it more unlikely I will manage to go to Worldcon in Finland, later that year. I didn't have the money for this trip in the first place and this now makes it even more unlikely I will spend money I don't have.

* I need to stop formulating LJ entries in my head when I am on the go somewhere. Because when I do this I tend to not write it down. *sigh*

* A few days ago I went home from somewhere and it had rained before and it smelled like petrichor (which I love). It suprised me, because I can't remember having smelled it in winter before.

* I'll go to a concert in a few minutes. I am looking forward to spending time with friends and I guess it will be fun, but I am somehow not too enthusiastic about the music (Pelemele, they make rock music for kids and this is their annual concert for grown ups (but with the songs they also usually play for kids).

* I can't find my ID and neither my passport since a few weeks. Super annoying, ugh.

Happy Birthday, LJ!

elfy — Sun, 01 Jan 2017 23:37:26 GMT

I am very late - I even need to backdate this an hour to not be too late, but:

Happy Birthday to my LJ! Which is now 16 years old!

And I have not abandoned it, despite writing very little in the last year. My new years resolution is to change that again, I want to get back into this and I know I can.
I have another week off from work, so I can use this week to make an entry each day, to get me back on track.

A general roundup:
Everything is the same, more or less. Still the same job, still selfemployed on the side. Same boyfriend, cat is still alive and well. Chaos in my flat is unchanged. Still playing Stardew Valley and now also Civilization 6 which was a christmas gift. Family is mostly fine, except for my godmother (who is my moms cousin), who is in hospital bc of cancer (they removed one of her lungs) - I just can hope for the best.

I'm working on a "one-second-a-day" video for 2016. Due to my mobile breaking there is a gap I still need to fill with videos/seconds, but I will try to do so tomorrow (thank god it seems they updated the app I use in a way that makes this easier than to fiddle around with the phones internal date). I'm looking forward to it, this was really an important project for me last year.

Thanks for staying with me :-*

"Free" Weekend

elfy — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 09:51:57 GMT

I'm having a kind of free weekend. At least I hoped so, but it's not totally true: Tonight is a big birthday party of a collegue of Thomas and we are invited, so this evening is not free. And tomorrow there is the usual movie evening. And yesterday we were invited over at Ninas place. It was nice, but I didn't get the free time I feel I need right now.

What I would *like* to do:
- Play Stardew Valley
- Attend the fleamarket
- Go to the gym and watch another episode of Agents of Shield (3.2) on the cardio
- Look for a pic of my great-aunt that I could try to draw for her birthday and, well, start drawing
- Wrap up the 5 advent-calendars I'm making for friends

What I *have* to do:
- Sort pics of two weddings & retouch them for uploading
- Start working on a 30+ page broschure for a client
- Work on a logo I promised someone
- Do my taxes (3rd quarter & 2015)
- Write bills
- Clean up the kitchen
- Clean up/tidy my rooms
- Continue painting the front hallway
- Take out the trash
- Write mails and sort out a lot of small stuff (sending people pics, requesting changing tickets, etc)
- and more more more

*siiiiigh*
I guess it will be a mix. I'll pack my gym stuff and on the way out take the trash with me, head to the fleamarket for half an hour and then to the gym. Then I'll be back home and will try to work on one or two of the first 4-5 points of my "have to" list. This will probably take all afternoon before I have to get ready for the party.

Dr. Strange and the broken phone

elfy — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 23:48:22 GMT

We went and saw Dr. Strange - actually, I saw it two times already. I enjoyed it lots! Visually awesome and I loved the actors. The plot was quite standard origin story like. The jokes were good and well timed. The whole movie felt too short. And again I was a bit baffelt how funny it is with BC, that he can be so alien-looking and really not attractive at all in some pictures and then, at other times he's like so super attractive it's unreal. Being Dr. Strange definatly suited him very well.

Last night I noticed bluetooth isn't working on my phone, this happens somestimes. Usually a reboot solves the issues ... this time ... not. Actually, rebooting the phone threw it into a boot-loop. I stopped fiddling with it at some point, letting it charge and tried again this morning, but nothing seemed to help. I managed to get into recovery mode and there tried some things like swiping caches and such ... still nothing seemed to help. So, it came to a point *this* evening there a factory reset seemed to be the sensible thing to do, so I did that ... and booted the phone to find it nearly in it's original state. Original being = as it was before it broke, NOT empty, like I would expect with a factory reset.
That ... was baffling. But good! Well, now the phone is on again, I'm making backups and will have to turn it off again tormorrow, to put the SIM and SD card back in. I hope this will not break it again ...

In Bruges

elfy — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 10:06:53 GMT

I was in Bruges with three friends for a hen do (?) over the weekend, it was really nice. Does anybody care for photos? It's a really beautiful small city with - I kid you not - around 50 (!!!) chocolate shops. And so much beer. Like, 300 different kinds or so. And I don't even care for beer! But Belgium is famous for it's beer.

I'm fine.
Busy, but not deadly busy. fuchs was here yesterday evening, which was really nice, haven't seen her in ages. Tonight there is dinner at Thomas' parents, which usually is a nice thing, too.

I had a wonderful birthday party, it was sooooooo full, but also awesome, having so many friends here (50+ people) and I think everybody enjoyed him-/herself. I got a lot of nice presents, comics, socks, games, tickets for fairs I want to attend, money for certain stuff, flowers, chocolate, sweets, bike-tours-around-cologne-book and a computer game: Stardew Valley.

Speaking of which, I really enjoy this game! It has a tiny but of a farmville vibe (which I admit I played a lot when I wrote my diploma), but is so much more. It's single player (but multiplayer will come). You inherit a farm from your grandfather and start off there. You can work on it, but also explore the area around it as well as the nearby village and it's citizens. You can interact with them, even marry and have a kid. You have quests to fullfill, like getting stuff for people or killing monsters in a mine or finding something someone lost or building something. It's pixel-based art, so might look old, but is actually from this year. Has really good ratings on steam and was a big hit when it came out. One or two things annoy me, but I saw there are mods for that and I might try these (for example I find fishing ridiciously hard).
Amazing fact: The entire game was designed and programmed by one single guy, including art, story, character design, music, etc.

elfy — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 12:13:37 GMT

Do you know this feeling when you get little things done that stressed you for days for no real reason?

Like, I finally booked a hotel room for when we go to the Maschinenfest in October. For reasons this dragged on forever and the best options vanished left and right. First I found a great apartment, but failed to reserve it on time and then it was gone. Then I was about to ask Thomas father for his caravan, if we could sleep in there (which would mean he would have to bring the caravan to the parking space in front of the venua) and I was sure he would say no anyway, because it's brand new and quite some hassle for him. Funnily, he did say no, but because he needs the caravan for other guests right that weekend, otherwise we would have got it. But now I finally managed to rent two rooms for 3 people each in a cheap but nice hotel, unfortunatly not in walking distance anymore (but only 10 minutes by car with the tram). Oh well! Next time, better planning.

Also stressfull: The camera repair. It will cost 550 instead of the 300 I thought, so now I really wanted to aske the insurance and really stressed a lot over it. By now I at least managed to call them and they now will send mail to ask for proof and such, so things are on the way. Phew!

Aside from that ... my birthday on monday was nice. I had sushi with some friends in the evening and it was very tasty. Saturday is the biiiig party. Mom will also come, which is good, as that means I'll have help here with preparing everything. I'm having a day off today and wanted to clean everything up ... got not as far as I hoped by now. Oooh well. But some stuff is sorted. Little steps, yes?

Was on another cycling tour with my grandpa last friday and it was AWESOME. 100km in 4.5 hours! Yes: One-hundret Kilometers! By bike! In 4.5 hours! It was cool. Exhausting, but great. Would do it again in an instant.

Me and grandpa :D We even wore the same shirts, haha.

A photo of me taken last weekend (so, one day after the bike tour) at a follow (fantasy club) convention. I really like it! I never wear makeup, but someone did the makeup for me and it comes out quite nicely here. The camera fucked up the dress color, what seems blue-ish here is quite green, actually.

Would have been ...

elfy — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 08:28:22 GMT

... a good day for an "ADIML" today.
Going to cycle to Brühl in a bit to meet Moni for a crag-tour (? It's a forest bit with things to climb on and such, like, you get gear and all that). After that I'll cycle back to Cologne and meet up with Zorn and Swetlana for more bachelorette party/trip planning. Then I might join Thomas and Eric for some drinks in the city.

Oh well!

I'm having some days off now, actually right until after my birthday, so only going back to work on the 6th of September. Many plans for these few days (going to Seeheim twice - with cycling tour, sauna and moms birthday, photographing a wedding, finishing freelance work, my birthday, etc). Looking forward to it!

Posture correction

elfy — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 08:22:55 GMT

I saw a youtube video some ... years ago, that was about getting better posture with very simple and quickly done exercises.
I lost track of the video/forgot about it, before I even started to try it. But I really dislike my posture and want it to get better and wanted to find that video again.
Two days ago I stumbled over it on reddit and started to do the exercise in the morning and evening now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT_dFRnmdGs

Let's see if it does anything! Maybe I should take a pic and see if there is a change in some weeks.
Surprisingly, I do indeed really feel/notice these exercises, even if they seem so silly/harmless when watching them ... but I notice an exhaustion in my shoulders/upper neck when I'm done, which I think is a good sign (as in, it might help doing these).

On a random side note, zorn was here yesterday and we cleaned my rooms quite a bit! My mom and grandma will come over in 10 days, so I still got a lot to do, but it already looks way better than two days ago.

Reason 38724 to love my cat ...

elfy — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 16:16:02 GMT

... even when I take her to the vet, she does not hate or shun me afterwards!
All is fine, as it seems, I was just worried because she had a little ... "bump" over her left eye, but that was probably just a sting from some insect. I'm getting her blood tested, actually "just so". She is 16 and this was the first time in 3 years we've been to the vet. I thought a blood test would be a good idea, after all cats tend to hide their issues very well, especially things like kidney failure and with her age ... Oh well, I hope all is as fine, just as it seems.

Thomas is gone for a week. Sailing with other guys, as a sort of stag party/holiday. They have the most awesome weather and I'm somewhat envious because here the weather is so, so shitty since days. Rain rain rain and some thunderstorms thrown in. At least we don't have any issues with all the water coming down, some other places in germany have not been as lucky.

Anway, being myself I did not manage to just relax and do nothing the first day of being alone here, as I had planned at first. Instead I went to a fleamarket, then to the gym (where I did both, strenght training AND cardio, yay! ... actually, I did the cardio just to watch another episode of Agents of Shield), then I needed to do some shopping, went on to visit a friend who had a few photos hanging in a little gallery and it's sort of an open day there (and she was happy I came by, it seems there were only very few visitors, probably due to the bad weather?) and now I have bearly 2 hours left before some friends will come over for a gaming evening. And I seriously still need to clean the kitchen and the livingroom and I need to cook/eat something.

And yes, the ComicSalon was very nice and I want to post about it, but ... later. Now ... dishes.

ComicSalon!

elfy — Wed, 25 May 2016 23:48:54 GMT

Ah, WGT is barely over and tomorrow we will already head toward Erlangen to attent the ComicSalon! We = me and my mom. It's a real tradition by now, we go there the 8th time, so since 16 years, as the Salon is only every second year. We will leave tomorrow morning, but then go on a geocaching tour. I found one with a lot of likes, 40 caches, 10km to walk. That is so much! I wish we could use bikes, like we did on the tour two years ago, but this time we will have to walk.

We will sleep in a pension on the way and proceed to Erlangen on friday (mind you, it's only a 2.5-3 hour drive from my moms home to Erlangen ... but last year we did this "geocaching day" before the Salon and it was so nice we wanted to repeat it. I hope it will be also nice! The weatherforecast is very promising.

I'm looking forward very very very much to meeting rattenmaus at the Salon! She will be sharing a room with us, we got the same hotel as last year, but probably a much more expensive room (a suite, actually o.O), ah well, my mother really wanted this hotel again ... it has a sauna and is like 5 minutes walking away from the main area.
We will also be meeting Karsten and Bertl for dinner and probably one or the other person I know from going there all those years.

What annoys me is how little time I had to prepare everything. I got one of the sticker albums you can fill at the Salon on the WGT already, but failed to look at it and this way missed this this year there will actually be a meeting for a sticker exchange on sunday - and I still have so many stickers from the previous years, which I could have brought along! But I didn't see it and didn't bring the others.
Also, I didn't really check out the attending artists and what will actually be going on there, I will just see it when I'm there. Yes, that is also fine, but I just wish I had some more time to ... I don't know, get everything sorted. Not even the CD I make for the ride there every time turned out particularly good, it just feels as if I barely got to know good new songs in the last two years.

Anyway, it will be great and I need to sleep now.
I have very serious muscle ache from the gym yesterday (new wheightlifting program) and hope this will be better tomorrow, as we will have to walk at least 10km! I NEVER walk this much. Let me bike 30, 40, 50km, no problem ... but walking? Eeeeeh ... haha.
Will be fun! ;)

Sportlich

elfy — Sun, 01 May 2016 22:37:41 GMT

Today I had an interesting thought about self-perception.
Sometimes there are instances where you are asked to describe yourself, your traits and I realised, I would never ever call myself atheletic/sportive (in the "likes to do sports" way) - and this even if I a) ride my bike to go everywhere that is 10km or less (and enjoy long bike tours) b) go to the gym 2-3 times a week at least and by now can't deny anymore that I actually really enjoy it. I think I wrote already that I took up watching Agents of SHIELD in the gym on the cardio machine and this makes me do my cardio for 40 minutes each time, which is nearly double of what I was willing to do before. AND I am willing to actually go to the gym in the morning or two times on the weekend, if I missed one of my normal weekday gym-evenings.

And I actually now finally mentioned to my favourite trainer at the gym that I would like to learn how to do squats (with weights), bench pressing, deadlifts and shoulder pressing (military pressing?). Because I am actually genuinly interested in that and would like to do it. I also upped my protein intake (as in, what I *try* to take in each day) to hopefully support muscle growth ;) I still don't manage more that roughly 75g a day with the calories available (and with still eating things I like), but that's more than before and, well, I will see how it goes in a few weeks.

Anyway, back to the initial thought: I really wonder why I would not describe me as someone who likes sports. Because if someone told me s/he does what I do, I think I would think of that person as someone who enjoys working out. Maybe I don't think of myself that way because my interests are so specific? I really don't know.

Long time no meme

elfy — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 14:03:34 GMT

I got a B from macalla_ :)

Something I hate: Bigotry

Something I love: Butterflies, (a nice) Bokeh, the Blue hour

Somewhere I've been: Berlin, Boston, Bangkok

Somewhere I'd like to go: Boston (again!), Bangkok (again! With my mom this time) and Berlin (again!) ... other than that ... Bahamas? Bali?

Someone I know: Barbara, although I haven't seen her in a while ... I should change that!

A film I like: Batman Begins

Comment if you want a letter.

Tingling

elfy — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:11:08 GMT

Yesterday I went to the gym third day in a row. I *never* do that. Well, before I never did.
I went on sunday for cardio and strenght training, but had the idea to finally watch S.H.I.E.L.D. while doing cardio and that worked well, so I was on the cardio machine way longer than I planned and had to leave before doing the strenght stuff. Monday was a holiday and I had time, so I decided to go again to do the strenght stuff I missed the day before ... but I also wanted to watch another episode of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I went onto the cardio again... just this time I had time afterwards to do the other stuff and go to the sauna as well, which was nice.
Then yesterday it was tuesday and tuesday is a regular day for me to go to attend two classes (?), one is Move It, the other Power Rücken (Power Back (like, backside/shoulders)), but the usual trainer wasn't there. So another guy did the training and daaaaaaaamn ... it was hardcore. No, Hardcore, with a capital H. No machines, no equipment was used, just our bodies, but damn, I sweated so much. And it lasted 45 minutes and I was really "well done" afterwards.
And now my legs are tingling. Well, it started yesterday evening and they still tingle. Not like a usual muscle ache, just ... tingling. But I guess the muscle ache will come, too. But the training was surprisingly fun.

Happy Birthday, Naomi!

elfy — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 20:45:30 GMT

(Her birthday was actually on the 23rd, but I just now get around to post about it)

Naomi turned 16 and I thought you all might enjoy a post brim full of cat pictures and facts about my cat!

Her full name is Naomi of Carnarvon.
She is a pure bred british short hair.
Her color is called "smoke".
I got her when she was 12 or 16 weeks old.
She is an indoor cat and has always been.
As you can see, she has a resting bitch face, but is actually a very lovely cat.
She does not like to be picked up (to be carried on your arms) and will try to liquidify to get down.
She does not scratch or bite.
She is not phazed about events involving a lot of people, when there is a party here, she will still at least here and there check out the living room.
Other cats are not soooo much her thing.
Dogs as visitors are fine as long as they keep their distance and don't bark at her or try to play.
She is very healthy until now and I hope it stays that way for many more years.
Her only "issue" is a closed tear duct, which leads to tears on her left eye, but she has this since many years.
She will come and demand cuddles and likes to have her belly rubbed.
Despite her age she loves to play and still has her "5 minutes".
Being 16 years now means she is as old as a 78-79 year old human would be!

And now, have many pictures!

This is Naomis mom with maybe her. D'awwwww!
Her mom was owned by a friend of mine (sadly we hardly have any contact these days - I don't even know if Naomis mom is still alive), whose father (the owners ;)) bred cats.

Fun side fact: zorn actually owned Naomis grandmother and her grand-aunt when they were old, but they passed away by now.

The full litter her mom had! I think it was her first and only one. Naomi is either the kitten at the top or the bottom. The desired color for the kittens was actually the one the kitten second from the botton has. The litter had two boys and two girls.

That might be her :) Or her brother :)

Also maybe her (bottom, obviously).

A still very young Naomi, now already home with me. Not sure how old she was there, maybe half a year or a year?

Another youth- picture :)

My little vampire teen lady :)
I was still living in Seeheim at the time this picture was taken, so she was a maximum of 2 years old.

But she surely moved with me to Cologne and found new favorite spots in the new flat.
Here, for example, on my old non-flat computer screen.

Naomi always was a fan of tab water and she really never liked drinking from normal bowls. When you went into the bathroom or to the kitchen she would often RUSH past you and jump into the sink and wait that you turn the water on. This got better when she got a cat fountain a few years ago, which she uses a lot. I really should have gotten one earlier.

One of her favourite spots in my old flat, my windowstill.

This was actually very rare and unexpected - she usually doesn't go onto tables (I never trained her to not do this, she just usually doesn't). But here the sun was maybe to tempting :) I let her sleep like that.

She often sleeps with one or two paws stretched out.

See! Like that. Also: claws! But she really doesn't scratch. Well, not humans. But furniture, sometimes. *sigh*

Naomi sometimes has no sense of personal space and might lie down on my pillow kind of ... in my face. She doesn't do that too often, but these last years more than the years before.

I had made myself a spot to nap on our tiny balcony and she came to lie next to my head also.

This was a SUPER rare occurence. Like, a one-time-thing so far. Naomi on the balcony *lying down* and she even went there herself! See, when the balcony door is open, she is free to go there and explore and enjoy sun and fresh air ... but she usually doesn't want to. If we sit outside she might come a while and rub on our legs ... and then goes back inside. Sometimes I place her on the railing (?) and she looks around, sniffs the flowes ... and jumps back on the floor and goes inside again.

The balcony also has a small water drain hole, maybe the diameter of a golf ball or so - Naomi once actually managed to catch a bird (injured? sick? old?) that was resting/sitting in there! It was a blue tit, I think ... and she was dead by the time we got her from Naomi (she didn't even play with her, she just had her in her mouth and, well, it was her first and only bird she killed, ever). I think we one time gave her to neighbours for a few hours to catch a mouse and I think it worked, but I don't quite remember (it was back in the old flat and my flatmates did it).

Sometimes she just chooses to lie down in the middle of my chaos.

Or on jigsaw puzzles. WTF, cat?

Sometimes she seems to forget how lying down works ... haha :D
This can't be comfortable ...

THIS is actually her favorite spot - on my knees. My computer chair is a Poäng from IKEA and I have my keyboard on my knees and the mouse on the armrest. Usually she manages not to lie on the keyboard (but I have to move it quite much toward me). She sleeps like that (I mean on my knees) very often and for hours.

This is rare - usually the blanket is needed for her to sit down on my lap. It can happen that I sit down at the computer and she already followed me and waits for me to *finally* put the blanket over my legs so she can hop on. Well, here is one of the rare times no blanket was needed, for some reason.

A petting is always welcomed.

Like I said, belly scratches are love.

She will often run to the sofa if I walk towards the living room, jump on it and flop down, demanding to be petted.
And yes, she is a very fuzzy cat and looses a shit-ton of hair ... all year round *sigh*.

Another habit: Bed time treats. Usually she goes on her hind legs without support, I don't have a nice pic of that at hand.
When she noticed I go to bed soon she will sit next to it and wait to get her treats. She usually does not sleep in my bed at night, but is often there in the morning when I wake up, watching me from the windowstill or chair.

Ah, here is another picture. She doesn't actually care from whom or when she gets treats. Treaaaaaats ....

Sunbathing is a favorite.

People often notice her golden eyes.

She loves plastic bags (and boxes) A LOT. Here you can also see the teary eye.

When I took this pic there were actually a lot of people in the room if I remember correctly ... it was a carnival party.

Ah, yes, like this. She looks like she is plotting to kill everybody.

But she also dares to come down and is still relaxed.

She actually often seeks human company. More likely than not she will be in the same room as the humans in the flat are.

This chain is her favorite toy ever!

She will even play fetch with it, kind of, which you can see in this old video (still taken in the old flat):
(in the video she seems not interested at first, which is a result from already playing a while before)

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FTT32SnNwzs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Same same ...

elfy — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 13:46:23 GMT

[movie]
Saw Deadpool yesterday night and was quite amused. A fun movie :) Others wrote good and long reviews already, so I'll leave it at that.
Sunday we watched Horns (good/ok) and Men & Chicken - the latter being the new movie of the guy who also did Adams Apples and The green butchers (Dänische Delikatessen) and damn, it was crazy. But also entertaining and weird and gross. And it had Mads Mikkelsen (in a very much not-flattering role). Watch it, if you liked the other movies I mentioned.

[work]
Everyday life has me fully back. Work was busy - much more busy than I hoped (usually these months in the year are quieter for me, workwise). I really hope there is a bit less to do in the office in the next weeks, so I can work on some other projects and finish some urgent to do (like f***ing taxes).

[weight]
While I was in the US I didn't care one bit for calorie counting and constraining myself foodwise, I ate whatever I wanted, we dined at some great restaurants and sat in the car a lot, which meant we snacked a lot on sweets and nuts and stuff. I gained 2.5 kg in these mere two weeks (but I think nearly half of that was water) - and I can happily say I am already back on track. Last sunday the scale showed me I was back at the pre-US minimum-weight - yaaay! :D Ideally I'll loose another 5kg and then it means holding that and seeing how it goes. I would then be down to 60kg again, which is totally fine for my height.

[other]
I started sorting the USA pictures, finally ... I chose 48 from the first 2 days already o.O Well, I mainly choose what I want to show my grandparents & mom, so I will not upload all of these pics, but I know there are only a few I could exclude even more if I still want to show every pic I want to show, ack ... Also, it makes me miss the places and people there again more and more. *sigh* Want to go back!

15 years!!!

elfy — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 22:03:38 GMT

Happy birthday to my LJ, which turned 15 today.
15!!!

And thank you to everyone who is still reading and still writing.
Thank you all for being here with me on this journey!

Have a good 2016 :)

19th of December

elfy — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 07:46:05 GMT

Lights by Michael Dzierza

Planetary Panoramas by Vincent Brady

Sinistersweetshop: Maleficent cupcakes

18th of December

elfy — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 23:41:30 GMT

fire fall - volcano kilauea hawai

Forest Throne by Lorelyne

glass work - tea rose bouquet by Paul J Stankard
Amazing, if you ask me ... just imagine what skill it must take to create something like this out of glass.

No photoshop - doesn't this cat look majestic?

17th of December

elfy — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 00:54:37 GMT

Still have to go to work, meh :(
Another day tomorrow that was supposed to be a day off. I really wanted to have some days *before* christmas. *sigh*

By Alex Bahena

Yes, a birds nest.

By Mahesh Balasubramanian

16th of December

elfy — Sat, 19 Dec 2015 16:30:31 GMT

Surprisingly, no catcontent this time!

Also, one is NSFW.

By Tom Gauld

Click for bigger view

By Gerald Robinson

Ahahaha, wtf?