The Times, They Are A-Changing
I haven't blogged a lot lately. And even that statement might be an understatement. I was just really busy and not necessarily with stuff that's worth writing about. I think I mentioned it once (or several times *g*) before, that I really don't like these posts myselfs in which I just complain and whine about my life, so I refrained from blogging for a bit. But I'm determined to change that. And to keep the moaning posts to a minimum. I might even join the NaBloPoMo for April again, even though I know I won't be able to post every day, because I'll be in London for a few days. I might post from there as well though. Because I have already budgeted the data roaming charges for going online with my Palm Pre to use twitter and to check in on so many new and exciting locations on foursquare and all the rather unessential, but still nice things you can do with a smartphone.
My provider O2 has a 15 EUR/day cap on international data roaming, otherwise I probably wouldn't even consider it, because it could be really really expensive. But I think I'll allow myself that luxury this time. That reminds me that I still have to find a way how to write about a hilarious comic, I sas recently, about this whole web 2.0 stuff. I didn't find this comic online yet and I'm hesitant to just show a pdf or jpg of it online because of the copyright.
Where was I? Right, planning to write some more and to write about nice and happy stuff. Which requires nice and happy stuff to actually happen in my life. It wasn't just work and other stuff that kept me and my mind occupied. I think I just let myself be dragged into this "oh my life is so stressful and I have no idea how to deal with it all" train of thought. Or maybe not and it really WAS so stressful ;-)? One very annoying personal habit I noticed the past week was, how easily I feel overwhelmed, even though I might not actually be it. And how easily I am intimidated and how I am sometimes so very afraid of certain things. I won't get into details now (part of the only nice and happy thoughts agenda) and it wasn't really anything bad. Which makes it so ridiculous to have been afraid in the first place. I really really need to work on my self-esteem. But that's nothing new.
To help with the nice and happy (and new) stuff in my life, I signed up for my next two volunteer shifts at RUHR.2010 (Cultural Capital of Europe) on Easter Weekend. I only could do that, because yesterday I was finally able to exchange the one article of the volunteer clothing, which was definitely too small for me to wear. I'm a XXL size kind of girl, but these lady shirts were a very small version of XXL. Yesterday there was a large clothing exchange event, where I could exchange my shirt for a men's shirt. (in XXL as well, but at least that fits rather well now *g*). So all is set for my shifts on the weekend and I'm actually looking forward to it. Especially as I'll be working in a museum which I personally always wanted to visit anyway, but just never got around to do it. Yes, I know, I'm a lazy bum sometimes.
I did another nice - RUHR2010 related as well - thing this afternoon. I went to see the "Helden" (Heroes) exhibition at the Henrichshütte in Hattingen. Earlier this year I bought the Ruhrtopcard, which gives me free entrance to a lot of museums and such and it was about time I started to use that card for some thing.
It's an interesting exhibition, with a good audioguide, so I spent about 90 minutes walking through the exhibition and learning about heroes and how society sees them (from ancient times until today). In the sport section at the end of the exhibtion, I once again was reminded of the slightly embarrasing fact, that I'm a cryer. I'm so easily moved to tears nowadays, it's really pathetic. I had to dab my eyes after seeing the clip about Dorando Pietro (Olympics 1908), listening once more to "aus dem Hintergrund müsste Rahn schießen..." (Bern 1954) and seeing the clip about Mohammed Ali, and to see him light the Olympic Flame in 1996 in the end. *sigh* Not to mention the last section about "Heroes of our time" and the firefighters in New York on 9/11. Definitely an exhibition worth seeing, if you're in the area.
While I was at the Henrichshütte I thought I'd try out the new Palm Pre application I found yesterday by complete accident. I don't remember what I was looking for in the PreCentral, when I found the geocaching WebOS app. Geocaching on my phone. *squee* I always wanted to try geocaching, but never knew how to, because I just don't have the right utilties. I have to admit I probably still have to find out a bit more about the settings of this application and about geocaching in general, but it seems to be working.
I actually planned to find my first cache at the Henrichshütte this afternoon, but there wasn't on on site directly, only one 0.5 km away. No big deal, I thought and the WebOS compass did show the right direction until I reached the river Ruhr and was supposed to still walk straight ahead :-) The only bridge across was quite some distance away and it was raining and I was hungry already, so I decided to postpone finding my first cache for another day. On which I have more time at hand and on which the sun is shining. But I'm so excited that this app seems to be working on my phone! Way to kill some more time and to get distracted from all the other things that actually might need to be done more urgently. Like starting to work on that termpaper I flunked a few weeks ago. The plan was to have it done by Easter... Ehhm, so not going to happen.
Because there also is a short vacation in London to prepare. *squee some more* When I started to work out the details I was worried at first, that I didn't find enough interesting things to do and visit, because I've done all the big stuff (Tower, Westminster Abbey etc) on my last two trips. But once I've started to look into it I found a lot of things to do. And that really means A LOT! In fact I almost don't know how to squeeze it all into my 4.5 days long trip. It's going to be so exciting!
All in all: a lot of nice and happy and exciting stuff to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. Yay! Life is good!