ritas kleine welt

we only got to meet a couple of times during my last visit to wales one year ago. but we clicked instantly and had a couple of animated conversations. this is how i will remember duncan tanner:

it's been proven countless times already: life has a sarcastic streak to it. yesterday morning, was just another example. this time on the subject of language, though.

you wanna see how i drive myself mental? it really doesn't take that much. i simply start rambling until my train of thought starts going round and round and round and round...

what it boils down to is power. censorship and denial of free speech is exercising that power over others. it is in no way any different from good old orwell's newspeak. the moment your and my speech is restricted by whomever thinks so fit, that moment our freedom is diminished.

use your power and speak!

a new spin for the ever so popular game bullshit! bingo. liz henry has designed her own sets. you'll find 'anti-feminism', 'racist', 'creationist', 'white stupid guy' and all sorts of interesting bingo cards in her folder.

BINGO!

don't forget to print off the appropriate card before you head out to the next gathering of the ever so lovely extended family, or the pub down the corner or the next best NPD-rally.

this year's trip with the english department took us outside the gates of leipzig and inside a cute little castle in the countryside nearby. it was a very lovely short trip to say the least and lunch was magnificent. the only bit in all the entertainment that rubbed somewaht sideways was the slightly wacky owner of the castle. but i guess that's the markings of the aristocracy -- where ever you might find them on earth. the guided tour was ok, but i don't think the price of €7 each in a group of more than 20 people was justfied. (hello, group fare?!?!?) after all, all we did was look at three different rooms and listen to the recital of a rather inane poem. one euro more and we could have spent an entire day at the zoo. children's programme included!

despite the lovely company as always, i just hope that next year's trip will be more worth it.

as you know, stiwart and i had been on a magical mystery tour across london on saturday. just to give you an incling of what we covered, here are some public signs and other interesting [read 'exceedingly british as opposed to german'] signs.

it pretty much goes without saying that we were pooped by the end of the day.

for the next two years i have landed a job at the english department here in leipzig. starting 1 april, i have half a position as a lecturer for british cultural studies and literature.

life is double-plus uber-good!

the past two evenings i have süent correcting term papers. it is quite a dull work and i find myself always swinging back and forth between, 'in dubio pro reo!' or, 'WTF?!?' at least the students were so friendly to provide the occassional diversion/entertainment in the form of misspelled words or simple creativity in aiming pretty hard -- but shooting way beyond the goal.

in one of the questions, i asked the students to name three rebellions/riots in 19th century wales. one student was very creativly rummaging through her brain and trying to remember really, really hard. well... according to her the Rebeccas were a train company ('Rebecca Rail') that was not, as commonly assumed, against the building of toll gates. instead, they asked to mind the gap ('against tall gaps'). and the Merthyr Rising was not at all about the promotion of male suffrage, but wanted to introduce the absentee ballot ('mail suffrage').

if this keeps up, i shall have a broad collection of 'best of Kulturstudienklausur' by sunday evening.

ps. another goodie: england is a celtic nation, every celt a catholic and welsh slavery was abolished in 1833.

two years ago, i toppled over with laughter when watching the weekly question time of the prime minister in the britsh house of commons. it was 8 march, when a tory MP asked tony blair about his direct line to god.

you can watch the entire session here. to watch just the mentioned exchange between the mp and the pm, go to minute 21 onwards.

it appears that my most creative flashes of genius always come to me in the shower, drying my face, blow-drying my hair, on the loo...

two days ago i received an e-mail from one of my students in the cultural studies seminar that they were completely unable to meet as an expert group (of only two people!) to coordinate their work that goes into the next session tomorrow. and why? because one of the two girls doesn't have internet. naturally, if there's no internet, there's no way in the whole wide universe to pick up a phone, meet in one of the many student cafés, mensa, library or just the uni in general. thus, i rolled my eyes heavily, muttered something not so nice under my breath and sent a reply to the one participynt telling her not to worry too much about monday.