Where has March gone?


There haven’t been any news here for one whole month now – but I can explain everything!

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First the internet broke down a for couple of days. Well, actually it would have surprised me if we had really been able to surf untroubledly for more than a few months at the Telekom. No, it really was about time again for one of those biannually recurring strokes of genius by which we are regularly left stranded as regards internet. This time, they upgraded our line from 3 to 6 (!)  MBit at no charge and without raising the tariff. Great actually, that T-Online finally reaches speeds that other providers have been offering as standard since two years. But even greater is when the responsible people don’t even inform you or ask you if you have the necessary hardware at all. Of course, our modem was too old for the new line and therefore could not establish a connection anymore. After several days of telephone terror we could finally obtain a downgrade to the old speed, so we can go online again for now.
Of course, you don’t get a new modem from the Telekom either. (Rumor has it other providers’ customers just walk into the shop, return their old modem and receive a new one. Unbelievable!) So, we can now either go on creeping around at 3 MBit, although our tariff now includes more, or we buy a new modem for 79 €.
But wait! Isn’t there a third option? – Right! We wait for the contract to expire in August and change providers after 14 years of subjugation!

Tiny thing with too much power
Tiny thing with too much power

After this funny episode I caught myself the worst cold since at least five years and lay in bed for a whole week. But just as the summer wouldn’t be half as beautiful without the opposite of winter, you will probably only appreciate the fortunate state of healthiness if you exchange it for a nasty illness from time to time.

On 29 March I went to the crafts market on Castle Burg. The many colorful handmade things were just the load of inspiration that I have been longly thirsting for. But I was also amazed at what simple things people obviously make money with, and in my head I automatically went through all the possibilities that might be qualified for me to profit from easy crafting, too. I don’t want to devalue the artists’ work, but some things just weren’t what I understand by “artisan craftwork”, but rather “hobby crafting”.
There was for example a stained-glass maker who painted relatively small panes with colored geometrical forms which almost reminded me of Mondrian. So the difficulty level of the painting should keep within limits. Yet he charged 18 to 50 € each.

Pop-up card by Christel Kling
Pop-up card by Christel Kling

Another stall was the one with Christel Kling’s pretty pop-up cards. But again, I thought silently to myself: “Hmm… With an according craft book, I surely could do that as well.” Since then, the crazy idea of crafting something and selling it is wandering around my head. ;)

A small tinder fungus with burnt in owl
A small tinder fungus with burnt in owl

The highlight of the exhibition was clearly the stall of a lady who practiced poker work on tree fungi! There stood dozens of tinder fungi, in the flat bottom of which she had burnt almost photographic looking pictures. As subjects she chose animals almost exclusively; there were also a few plants, hearts or other knick-knacks among them here and there, but her true love seemed to be for animals. Anyway, I’ve never seen such fungal pictures before – in fact, she has had this procedure patented -, and the quality … Wow. That’s what I understand by “artisan craftwork”!

Towards the end of the month then, I didn’t want to post here anymore, because I thought I’d rather do that on the new server. You see, Ginchen.de has moved on the quiet! At this point a big thank-you to Thomas who has been sharing his server with me for years and never asked for anything more than the cost for the domain. But although he always did his best to comply with my whining and bugging when something had to be reconfigured again, it was about time now that I got my own, properly hosted webspace. Therefore, with a tear in the eye, I say goodbye to the beloved v-server and can now claim full customer service for 1,51 € more per month. ;)

Tasteless reality commercial
Tasteless reality commercial

Apart from that there were several things in March that upset me and that I was tempted to write about – but then decided against it, because they were subjects that ten thousand other people would write exactly the same about anyway.
There was for example the “commercial” for the new Pro7 series “Fringe” that came in the form of a faked news and that even the Pro7 newsreader Michael Marx prostitu lent himself to. Since that day, I have a downright hatred of Pro7, but profess myself unable to boycott them entirely because of the “Simpsons”, “Scrubs” and “Malcolm in the Middle”. Anyhow, I can proudly say of myself that I haven’t watched a single second of “Fringe” yet, and I don’t intend to do so in the future.

The unworldly head of an unworldly sect
The unworldly head of an unworldly sect

Another topic was the statement of the pope that condoms worsen the AIDS problem. Sometimes I don’t know if I should even start thinking about it at all, because in the end you always argue against the insuperable, unshatterable walls of strong belief that convinced Christians have erected around their tiny minds. Conveniently, they always have the – in their sight valid – killer arguments on their side: “God moves in mysterious ways” and “It is obvious that you don’t understand. You can only understand if you let Jesus into your heart.”
Well, who knows, maybe I will actually rant about that one day – but not today.

Now, after this sweeping blow, everybody is up to date again, and I will hopefully return to a more regular steering towards my blog. In this sense: See you soon.


2 responses to “Where has March gone?”

  1. Gina, I really, really like the new desgin. I find it to be fantastic in every, single way.
    I am simply going to have to do a massive overhaul to my blog having seen the magic that is yours! Bravo.

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