things of a bloggish nature (rss feed)
van nuys
lesley, i was thinking about you the other day ;o) i was listening to an episode of kcrw’s music exchange and nic was playing a song by this band from the valley called los abandoned. now guess what the song was called? “van nuys!” funny, innit. do you know those guys by any chance?
i’ve become a 24thian.
scary things are going on. i may even start believing in conspiracy theories. which would mean that i’m seriously nuts.
okay, what’s all that fuss about? well, i’ve been offered a couple of freelance jobs lately. which is not a bad thing per se. but here comes the strange part. three of them jobs have been about designing invitation cards. which is maybe a bit weird but not exactly scary.
what i find odd, though, is that all three events i’m supposed to design the invitations for take place on the same day, november 24th.
now, is that strange or is it? what’s that with the 24th? what’s so bleeding special about this day that everybody wants to celebrate some crap or other on this particular day?
if it was the 23rd, i’d say, okay the illuminati are after me. but’s it the 24th, for fuck’s sake. and i’m not sure if i should be relieved or worried about the fact that it’s not the 23rd …
umaryland.edu
look what i came across the other day when i was walking through our neighbourhood:
i didn’t know there was a campus of the university of maryland in town. fucking strange. what is it good for, anyway? my guess would be that the geezers over in maryland established the munich campus only to take the piss of first-year students.
imagine a freshman (freshwoman? freshperson?), majoring in philosophy and modern dance, wandering about in baltimore looking for their classes. and then the uni geezer goes like, “oh, didn’t you know? ‘political theory 101’ is held at the munich campus. do you mind the 5,000 mile commute?” hehe …
no news is also news.
that being said, i have to admit that this post’s somewhat lame title is just that: a lame title. and it doesn’t even try to sound catchy or attractive. and – for better or worse – it’s the truth. there’s nothing happening these days really.
it’s been a weird week, to put it mildly. not a bad week, just somehow strange. bit of like a roller coaster of feelings. the last time i felt like this was about eighteen months ago. at the end of the story, i ended up in a tacky motel in las vegas. funny, that …
i’m not sure what to make of it. i should pro’ly have a good ol’ heart-to-heart with somebody about it. but i’m afraid grouchy me doesn’t have the heart for a proper heart-to-heart (fuckin’ a, how come i mentioned “heart” five times in two bloody sentences?). fuck.
on fire, with love (katja, make sure you keep them nights free)
this is gonna be a hell of an autumn – musically, that is. by the way, wanna know what i bought yesterday at me favourite record shop? the thermals’ the body the blood the machine and seachange’s on fire, with love. did i ever tell you that i love seachange to pieces?
anyway, here’s me concert schedule:
october
15, ron sexsmith (maybe …)
16, snow patrol (yes.)
17, panic! at the disco (definitely!)
19, the pipettes (if i feel like it)
24, i love you but i’ve chosen darkness (yes, baby)
27/28, hausmusik festival (woohoo!)
30, the lost patrol band (refused are fucking dead!)
november
8, phoenix (way to go!)
11, archive (dunno yet)
20, tv on the radio (yes.)
23, we are scientists (yes! i is scientists too!)
december
1, the kooks (luv, i’ve got me ticket yet ;o) )
now, does that sound good or does it?
the warning
tonight at the atomic cafe: hot chip. yeah! gotta boogie now. better not miss the pro’ly best band out there right now …
all work and no play makes bas a dull boy
yes, hello. i’m still alive. and i still run this website. thanks, friederike, for reminding me of this (now, ain’t that incentive enough to leave a comment? never mind in which language). okay, why haven’t i updated in ages? first, i’ve been [insert lame excuse here]. then, there was this [another weak attempt at justifying myself]. plus, i was [yet another pretext]. [pathetic, innit?]
erm, yes. where was i? oh, right, i was telling you about why i haven’t posted for – what? – two months. you want the long or the short version? – the latter, i s’pose …
we moved house (again), this time to inner-city munich. and i got a new job, a proper one this time. remember me ranting about all those fuckin’ employers? this is all forgotten now. ’cause one of the first publishers i applied to (in march?), offered me a decent job after all.
well paid, short working hours, all kinds of benefits (fuck, they even pay the bloody bus fare!), very nice co-workers. and a cool job at that. it seems like i’m gonna be making schoolbooks for the next twenty or so years. well, maybe not for the next twenty years, but hey, this is a secure job. and i plan to stick with it for the time being.
plus, i’m still doing all the freelance stuff i’ve been doing for years and will probably do forever. like making subtitles for weird movies. or typesetting books for the munich typographical society.
funny how things have turned out. just over a year ago, i was teaching classes on english linguistics. now i design schoolbooks …
no blog entry on girlfriendincoma.co.uk is complete with an abrupt and totally unmotivated change of topic. here it comes. i’m gonna go to bratislava (which is the capital city of slovakia if you didn’t know) over the weekend. i can’t wait to see me mate michal again. it’s been over a year now that we were in manchester together. and i wanted to go to bratislava for some time. didn’t i even write an entry about it? can’t remember. all that work seems to have a negative effect on me memory. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy. all work and no play makes bas a dull boy …
harman/kardon vs sony
the other day i told you that our new dvd player switches itself off as soon as i try to turn down the volume with the remote control of the receiver, didn’t i.
now guess what i discovered today – when i switch the teletext on with the television remote control, that fucking dvd player switches itself on! can you believe it? seems like those gadgets have been ganging up on me …
falegnameria candusso
i’m back from italy. did i tell you that i’m teaching seminars on xml-based publishing in italy? if not, me apologies …
a couple weeks ago, me former boss called me and asked if i would be willing to give a seminar. he knows that i know a little bit about xml, so he assumed that i might as well spread the knowledge and make some money out of it. and make some money i did!
i charged the company that i did the seminar for 500 euros per day. and afterwards – because they liked the class so much – they raised me fee to 700! can you believe this? well, i wouldn’t believe it either when i heard it …
so i landed this job. and maybe a week after the class, they called and asked if i could do a second seminar. “xml-based publishing 102,” so to speak. the only ‘catch’ was this: they wanted me to come to their place – which is in bolzano, north italy.
they would pay all expenses. they would pay for the travelling. they would book a hotel for me – which turned out to be a double room in the sheraton for chrissie and me …
jesus fuckin’ christ! that’s what i call generous. why can’t everybody be like this? basically, this was paid holidays. and great holidays at that. i’ve never stayed in such a posh hotel before.
plus, we had loads of time to wander around bolzano, do some shopping, taking dodgy photos of dodgy signs …
… and so on and so forth. more photos later. gotta go now and get me some yummy banana shake.
harman/kardon vs technics
i got this new dvd player the other day, because i was fed up with this army of gadgets sitting on the floor and collecting dust. what i wanted was as few pieces of equipment that can play as many different media as possible in above-average quality.
now all that is left is me record player, the new dvd player, and me old receiver (which is also connected to the powerbook via airport express). so far so good.
so i got home with the new machine, hooked everything up, and tried it out: the image quality is cool, the sound is top notch, and it looks fucking slick at that.
wicked, i thought. until i noticed today that the dvd player doesn’t like the remote of the receiver. or maybe likes it too much. whatever. but the thing is, when i’m trying to turn the volume down on the receiver with the remote, the dvd player goes off. ouch …
i’m running out of swear words …
… that i could use when describing employers. remember that publisher that offered me a job, which they called a ‘traineeship’, which it ain’t, which i’ve mentioned before, haven’t i? and i’ve also mentioned that they wanted to pay me a monthly salary of 500 euro.
last week, i wrote them an e-mail, telling them that i found a real job with a decent salary, and that i’m not available any longer. now guess what they replied …
they wrote that oh-so-super-surprisingly the boss has suggested that there might be a possibility to hire me on another basis. in other words, they were offering me a properly paid full-time job.
what the fuck? they are trying to get people to work for them for next to nothing and if they can’t find anyone stupid enough, they suddenly upgrade the ‘traineeship’ to an ‘entry-level position.’
i mean, it flatters me that they want – or need – me so badly that they actually consider paying more than four times as much as they originally intended, but i still think it only shows that many employers totally lack any kind of respect towards their potential employees.
if they want someone who does good work, why not offer them a proper job in the first place – rather than trying to trick them into accepting dodgy offers? i don’t understand that.
by the way, i just rented a cool volvo estate car, because i gotta go someplace tomorrow and pick up some stuff. volvos are so cool …
fookin’ nutters. seriously.
you guys ready for another chapter of me never-ending story of job-interview-related madness? here it goes …
i was invited for an interview by this place that offers services to publishing houses. what they basically do is to organise all the stuff that publishers can’t be bothered with. pre-press stuff, mainly. like image editing, typesetting, printing, binding, you name it.
not exactly the kinda job i was looking for, but the wage they offered seemed to be decent, so i applied – and was actually invited.
now, the problem was this. i’d sent my application by e-mail. and i’d received a reply, also by e-mail, asking me if i could come over on tuesday afternoon. and i said sure.
that was maybe three weeks ago. but a few days before the actual appointment i started wondering. i was like, wait a minute, where exactly do i have to show up on tuesday afternoon? for fuck sakes, they never told me their address …
so i checked their website. all i got was a “Directory Listing Denied – This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.” no website? seriously? okay.
what else was there to do? write them guys an e-mail saying, “hey there, it’s cool that you want me pop by and things, but where on earth is your place?” that would’ve been weird, innit?
and maybe it’s part of the game. maybe they want the applicants to demonstrate imagination and creativity when it comes to hunting down their offices. ‘orienteering for book producers to-be’? bollocks …
i guess they’re just a bunch of nitwits that haven’t actually realized that they should probably give their address to applicants.
now guess what i did? not for nothing do i spend most of me day in front of a computer. so i checked nic.com for the registrant of their domain name. and i got an address. and this i where i went and – lo and behold! – there it was: the offices of me employers to–be.
well not really, ’cause – as i’ve pointed out above – it wasn’t exactly the kinda job i wanted. yet another wasted day …
welcome to life!
know what was in the mail the other day? a big letter from yet another publishing company i had applied to a while ago.
they lengthily apologized about why they couldn’t invite me to an interview, how they had so many other applicants that were just a tiny little bit better qualified than i was, and all this other shite that employers usually write when all they want to say is “piss off, we don’t want you.”
know what else was in the letter? you’ll never guess. it was a bloody apron! well, not a bloody apron in the sense of “an apron covered in blood” but in the sense of … oh well, you what i mean, don’t you.
and you know what was printed on the apron? the company’s slogan, which happens to be “welcome to life.” ain’t that funny or is it?
i wonder if any of those blockheads over at this company has ever noticed the irony – or the sarcasm – of sending out negative answers together with an apron that says “welcome to life”. fucking bastards. all of ’em …
crisis? what crisis?
i just came back from a job interview at a publishing house. and i still can’t believe what i heard there. what is going on in these people’s heads, i wonder …
know what they offered me? a full-time job (they called it ‘traineeship’, but it ain’t no traineeship, it’s a full-fledged job) as a book designer/producer. now guess what they wanna pay me … 520 fucking euros! what? five-bloody-hundred? c’mon! our fucking rent is more than 700! i just don’t get it.
they said this is an average gross wage for entry-level positions in the trade. if this is the case, there must be something severely wrong in the publishing business. even the bloody dole money was more than that!
now, i’m considering becoming a proper freelancer after all. you know, i’ve been doing all kind of odd jobs over the last few weeks. i’ve composed this book for a foundation that funds medical research. and i can charge them about 1.500 euros for what was essentially ten days’ work.
then, i’m teaching this course on xml-based typesetting. and they pay me 500 euros per day. per fucking day! plus, i’m still translating and making subtitles for monitorpop.
maybe i shouldn’t put too much energy into finding a nine-to-five job and concentrate on other things. who needs health insurance and pension funds and social security in general, anyway?
boy, am i pissed off or what …
i wish you …
… all the best, luv’ly lilian, for yer birthday and for yer future and … just for everything. enjoy the day with all the people you love and care about. and let’s not fall out with each other over some homework or other, innit ;o) hugs and kisses from bas.
ye old blogge
‘die your hair black, never look back. my past is my business.’
(art brut “formed a band”)
if you still wanna read the old crap, you can do so here