What kind of superhero are you?

I am "shy, intelligent, loving, have great willpower, and have a good sense of humor." I think this describes me very well - my superhero personality is Spiderman/Peter Parker.



So, this weekend I am going to watch out for atomic spiders..

Take the test! Which superhero are you?

Have a good Friday and a better weekend, Belle

Picture-Poetry

Each evening two women that live 3191 miles apart make a photo.
They put it together and form something I would call a Picture-Haiku (even if the third line is missing, but it’s ok). It’s visual poetry, every day new, different, there for you.
Follow it!




Have a good Friday and a better weekend, Belle

Type in you life

Some days ago I came across this little film:



and I thought how wonderful it was that I wanted to share it with you.

Then I made my own experiment. One day, Wednesday 9th of January: I took photos of all significant (for me) type.
Here it is.

Actually this is all my day, from waking up to having breakfast, going to work, lunch, work again and home again. This wednesday was very busy, nearly only work and eat. It's not always like this. :-)



Click here for better descriptions of single pictures.

Have a good friday and a better weekend, Belle

New Year

So, what about a new Year’s resolution? Do you have your one special list?



I made my first serious list of resolutions 31st of December 2006 and it had three points: Quit smoking, exercise, read better books.
About quitting smoking I thought a long long time. It is so easy to say and think when the actual quitting day is still far. I had already tried and started smoking again, so I knew this would be going to be hard. But this time I had a good start. A friend of mine had quit some months earlier and she was doing fine. So I thought “hey, I can do this, too”.
The real turning point was when my flat mate suddenly got pregnant. She wasn’t able to quit smoking completely (and even found a doctor who told her up to 5 cigarettes a day were ok), and a lot of people around her felt to tell her what would be better for her and her baby. I saw her suffering the fact that everybody took the right to judge her and secretly I did the same. “What if you had to quit smoking one day to the other?” my inner self asked me, “it’s so easy judging her while you still have the cigarette in your hand. Try by yourself and see what she is going through.”
And so I did, I smoked my last cigarette the 6th of January 2007 and never smoked one again.

The effects were amazing. The best thing was a real positive boost for my ego. After some months not smoking I felt as if I had accomplished something really great. I had won. And I knew that I could do everything I wanted. I put other things on my list and started doing them, it really was a great year for me, and everything started with a New Year’s resolutions list.
So, take some time, sit down and think about what you want from your life, for yourself, for others. Think, too, about what you are willing to give. Believe me, this will be a great year!

Some people can really take it far,get inspired here.
Join us fo a great 2008!

Baby, it’s cold outside!

In my hemisphere it is definitely cold. So what can we do about this?

Women
1. Light a candle (better: light your fireplace if you have one. I am secretly dreaming of this, since I have no fireplace)
2. Friday – Sunday: Open a bottle of red wine
Monday – Thursday: Make yourself a hot tea or chocolate (yumm)
3. Wrap yourself in warm blankets, pullovers.
4. Get a good read or film, that warms your heart
5. Take a hot shower, pamper yourself with spiced bubblebath
6. Pick up your phone, call your best friend/sister/mother and share your thoughts about the cold
7. Think about how cold it would be if you were actually outside
8. If you have a cold home and you feel like freezing despite point 1-7 try another place: go to the movies, to the little local museum (empty, but all people working there will be so glad to have you)
9. Make a surprise visit to your best friend/sister/mother

Men
1. Cut some wood for the fireplace. If you have no fireplace: help out in the house. It’s amazing how cleaning the bathroom or hovering under the bed makes you sweat.
2. Open a bottle of beer
3. Get long warm underwear
4. See a sportsgame in Tv
5. Call your mother/grandmother and tell them how much you enjoyed their home knitted sox when you were a boy. They will get the hint, don’t worry, they are women. You’ll get some new pairs!
6. Pick up the phone and call your best friend/brother/father and complain about the stupid boiler, that doesn’t work
7. Take the dog for a walk. When you come back your house will feel very warm!
8. Go to the pub. Better: a sport pub
9. Make a surprise visit to you mother/sister/aunt: women feel cold all year through, their homes will be hot and be sure you’ll find some hot drink ready to enjoy

Woman & Men:
10. Have warm thoughts! This will help you:

So. This is Christmas.

I needed to. If you think, christmas is not for you, just skip this post. No worries.
I am a Buddhist and Christmas is still a important day in my life. Like my birthday and Kosen-Rufu-Day, but importance changes based on what day is next.

In my office we come from 6 different countries, three continents and 4 different religions, and guess what, we all celebrate Christmas. So, some days ago I bought a fake tree (quite real, in fact), put on the radio (scroll down, there is the Christmas channel) and had a happy Christmas decoration session. Oh so satisfying.

Here some things you can do, to get the Christmas spirit:
See THE classic:



Make Christmas ornaments.

Bake cookies! Ask your mum or your grandmum a recipe. Best thing to do: give them to your friends, collegues. What a cheer!

Have a good Friday and a better weekend, Belle
p.s. Don’t forget: war is over. If you want it.

Fight Aids at home.

Or the Dengue Fever. Or unfold the human Proteome. How? It’s easy!
Go to the World Community Grid and download their Boinc Manager and this thing will download small portions of projects on your pc and work on it while you are surfing in internet (or working). Probably you will never notice because your pc has a high potential and you use it just to read your email or whatever else. Even my pc, which is quiet rusty and really working a lot has still some disk space I can dedicate to help out for a higher purpose.
The Community Grid helps teams of researches that need supercomputers. For example:

World Community Grid focused on a project key to advancing our knowledge of human disease. By identifying the proteins that make up the Human Proteome, scientists can build the understanding needed for novel and effective treatments for diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS, SARS, and malaria.

To do so, it needed more than 26,645 years! Yes, years! But in reality they needed lesser than 2 years. Instead of keep thinking on superpc for 26000 years a lot of pcs thought only two years. Isn’t that great?
I am in the project for 3 weeks now and already accomplished several mini-projects, helping to fight aids, dengue fever and other things. Boy, it feels so good! You get this little sympatric window that shows you what your pc is doing and how far you got. It works even when you are offline or at lunch break (before I go to lunch break I put my preferences on 100% processor use – why shouldn’t my pc work while I am off?).



Think about it. Tomorrow is the World Aids Day and Christmas is coming. Get the good feeling of never saying “Yeah, but what can I do?” again!

Have a good Friday and a better weekend, Belle