it’s a beautiful thing to watch young people on the streets, their energy beaming. the kind of beauty that at the same time reminds me of what i used to be before, and unravels a realm of uncertainty that scares me.

after being a host for few days, it seems like i’ve come to realize more about myself.

clarity about reality. more awareness arose.

a busy semester went by again. yet still feeling haunted by the anxiety for most of the times. besides learning a few things about unlocking iphones, my life has not been too eventful. but it’s probably this exact mode throughout relatively longer period of time that made this awareness surfaced.

what i can do is to cherish every encounter, no matter how brief it might be. un/easiness  about reality sometimes just overwhelms me. i do allow myself to choke up a bit, in the most unexpected moments. and i’m pretty sure it’s a good thing.

Ever since I got back to Vienna, my romantic gene made me listen to his radio show whenever I could. Just to hear his voice. Reading his blog-entries about me also just made me smile.

He came to visit me in August, for slightly more than two days. Went to MQ, Naschmarkt and the Tel Aviv Beach, Schloss Schönbrunn and learned even MORE about Kasier Franzi and his Sisi and the precious and well-kept secret of Kasierserviette..

But I guess the romance wears off sooner or later. We both know that long-distance won’t be easy and decided to stay in friendship, which is also nice.

Whenever I look back, I still feel very lucky to have this encounter and how it developed. And for sure I’ll tune in his station in the future as well.

To get there made me one of the victims in the decline history of Sky Europe Airline. My flights got cancelled two days before departure. At the deepest disappointment I had to call some friends to share my despair. In the end I could find reasonable flights from KLM and so my desire to be in Amsterdam again was taken care of.

I had this year also one exam to prepare in Amsterdam, which Detlev helped me alot in understanding the awfully difficult-looking tax-specific German words. Besides preparing for the exam, I got to meet a lovely friend of Detlev, Adelle, who is a 57yo German woman, full of energy and dynamic vibe. She used the term ‘over-sexed’ to describe her parents for 5 times within 2 minutes and shared her appreciation for big sexy black guys.

Adelle took us to the ‘Iftar’ at the Bible Museum in Heerengracht. It was an event for discussions from christians, jews, and muslims, about the meaning of fasting to them. I couldn’t understand that much coz it was all in Dutch, but Adelle translated it for me. After about 1.5 hours of religious talking, the food was served. Hot tomato soup, cold pasta, cold couscous, water, low-fat milk and orange juice were served. Poor Detlev had to eat bread only, because he was having diarrhea..The highlight of that evening was however running into the hysterical neighbor living downstairs..The stylish blondie was being rude as usual, saying that ‘my mom cooks better’ when being asked how she liked the food..

Besides that it was just the normal usual things that really made me happy to be in Amsterdam, having chinese take-out with Detlev and Sim, chit-chatting, walking around in the city, and checking out clothes that you don’t get in Vienna.

My discovery of the city this time was: Droog, the design shop with a very cute clerk working on the weekend, and Puccini a chocolate shop whose aroma is sooo good that infuses the room with intense chocolate flavor once you enter the small shop, almost like aroma therapy. Both are in the Stallstraat.

also checked out Zandvoort for the very first time, touched the water of Atlantic ocean..

just now writing about it makes me miss A’dam already. Hungry for Ah-lung’s take out, Puccini chocolate, AH-cookies, the interesting people there, and Detlev’s plem-plemerei.

It’s truly a wonderful feeling when you feel that you’re understood almost fully by a person who you care so much about, and vice versa.

Last weekend I went to Bratislava with my Israeli friend Or. The train leaves at Südbahnhof and took about an hour. We were actually picked up by some guy who chatted me up over the internet whom i’d never met before. Boris showed us briefly around in the old town center which is lovely except that the language seems impossible to understand or pronounce. Detlev taught me the German expression ‘bömische dörfer’, which means somthing like ‘it’s greek to me’ in English. I guess that expression would stay in my memory forever now I’ve been to Bratislava.

Unfortunately we didn’t make it to any museum, but it was still a lovely daytrip. Vienna and Bratislava are the closest capital city to each other in Europe. The highlights of the trip for me was:

1. seeing cute Boris

2.the non-stop chattering tour guide at the next table where we had lunch…makes me wonder if that’s an requirement for a tourguide in Bratislava..

3. the incredibly good skin of the waitress at the café where we spent our last euros in Bratislava. It was literally milk-like

hope all these 3 points above qualify me as non-conventional weekend-traveler. lol.

laziness. lack of inspiration. the mere fact that i don’t consider my daily trivia to be worth sharing with..or is it all just excuses in another form of self-protection?

blogging, twittering, facebook-status-updating. the not-so-different  self-expressing methods can be seen as a exhibitionism, or self-(re)defining act. Ancient men drew on the walls, and we read the facebook-wall updates from our facebook-friends.

the underlying explanation for not updating so often? i guess it’s the common fear. the fear that in the cyber space of tons of blogs, mine wouldn’t matter. the fear that putting down my possibly worth sharing life details to be seen as narcissistic. the fear to look silly, childish, and lose face in general(having an asain heritage seems to correlate alot with it)

the fear that i might appear to be too serious, or too careless, depending on which group of people might be reading this. the fear of never finding the stable equilibrium status of mind. the fear that i would want to justify every analysis i make.

but hell with it. this is just for fun.

The association most people have when it comes to Philips, is probably nothing more than a light bulb. But i’ve been constantly fascinated by the new Philips Design. My personal amazement started at Christmas 2007, when I heard a friend of mine talking about the best-selling Xmas gift in the Netherlands, which was the ‘Wake-Up-Light‘ series from Philips. It simulates the sunrise, and the whole gradual lighting process can be set to 15min, 30min, or a whole hour.

What a perfect and natural way to fight winter depression! Austria and other winter-depression-prone nations should give Wake-Up-Light to every resident!

And just last week, I got to know the wonderful Living Colors at a friend’s place. You know a design is timeless when you see a good one. This energy-saving atmosphere lamp has 16 million different colors to offer, and comes with a remote control, so you can control and change the atmosphere of the room according to your mood. I find it such an efficient way to change the colors of the room, and so much easier than repainting. What’s really a big plus is also the interactive website: www.lighting.philips.com/microsite/living_colors/?lang=e

During my climax of fascination of Philips Design, I looked up their other products online, and read their wikipedia page. Did you know that together with Sony, Philips invented CD? The company has a pretty interesting history, especially concerning the Nazis:

• The only Philips family member who did not leave the country, Frits Philips, saved the lives of 382 Jews by indicating to the Nazis that they were indispensable for the production process at Philips’

• Also on March 11th, 1927 Philips went on the air with a station called PCJ now known as Radio Netherlands. It was broadcast to the Dutch East Indies. The only time the station went off air was when the Nazis invaded Holland. At the end of the war PCJ changed its name to Radio Netherlands and has been broadcasting to this day.

Nice stories hey.

Another fancy and even award winning Philips product: AUREA

with its illuminating frame, with colors changing according to the film, you not only get the HD quality, but also the aura of the video you’re watching. The demo flash on their website is astonishing. Such great combination of Aurea and Wong-Kar-Wai. http://www.flattv.ce.philips.com/en/au/ambilight/discover.html

In the dark difficult time, the business of light gives the soft touch which I think is an essential need of our modern times. Some might say the design is feminine, and it could be true in the tech-geek world: first the bulky product for the geeks, and sharp edges for tech-loving guys, and then poshy designs for the girls.

What attracts me is definitely Samantha’s word of truth: First the gays, then the girls, then, the industry.

If all industries reach us in the elegant, and new classic way as Philips, we are truly blessed.

]]> http://zivienna.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/philips-design-i-see-the-light/feed/ 0 zivienna wake_up_light_dawn livingcolors-yellow-14833 1170001462living-colors2 aurea_ii_lifestyle_evening2 http://zivienna.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/couture-teddy-beargimme-marc-jacobs/ http://zivienna.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/couture-teddy-beargimme-marc-jacobs/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:58:17 +0000 zivienna http://zivienna.wordpress.com/?p=34 ]]> The famous teddy bear producer Steiff has launched the Couture Teddy Bear that represents Karl Lagerfield. $1500 each, limited of 2500 pieces.

Nothing against uncle Karl. But i’d rather have a MARC JACOBS doll, in rubber, with his perfect torso, dashy eye lashes, three rocks on the right ear,  and few outfits to play with.(including that skirt he pulled off)

Certainly therre’re just many others also think that Marc is the hottest man in fashion industry.

So please, give us little gay boys a nice Marc-doll to play with. PLEASE!

Gyke rocks!!!
and check this out. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gyke

They started as a second hand furniture shop. But somehow turned into a professional waffle shop. But doesn’t mean you cannot bring the comfy maker beneath ur ass back to ur already crowded living room. Just pay, and be happy.

This is also a place to be creative with your secret love for alias. Coz they ask your name when you order, and shout out the given name to find the right person to bring the right waffles to.

‘Brad Pitt’, ‘Madonna’, ‘George Clooney’. Whatever. As long as you enjoy the sudden attention from the crowd, followed by the collective rolling eyes movement. Isn’t this fun? Kauf dich glücklich!