Disingenuous modesty or embarrassing self-praise

Writing about personal achievements and proud moments isn’t as easy as it sounds. You have to find a balance between disingenuous modesty and embarrassing self-praise. Thinking about it, two distinct fields of personal achievement immediately come to my mind: my family and my lifelong passion for the English language.

Better safe than sorry

“That depends entirely on who is using them.” This was my fifteen-year-old daughter’s prompt reply when I asked her whether social media were a blessing or a curse.

Nowadays, many people take social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace for granted as commodities of daily life. Without giving any thought to their possible disadvantages or even dangers. For someone like me who grew up in a world without computers and has gone to great lengths to acquire basic computer skills, there’ll always be a certain amount of reservation about digital media.

Children must be leashed—Billionaires are welcome

When you work in the luxury furniture business and meet clients on a daily basis, you experience a lot. But sometimes you experience a bit too much. For example, you witness a lot of couples arguing and calling each other names—and I don’t mean nice ones. And you witness a lot of couples making up and again calling each other names—now I mean the nice ones! Also, you have to deal with people who have absolutely no idea about how much, or little, 10sq m are but still, they expect you to turn their kitchen the size of a broom closet into a cuisine that would befit the White House. So in short, what you’ve got to put up with is a huge variety of personalities. But sometimes clients fit into two main stereotypes.

Procrastinate now - Panic later!

At the beginning of June many students realise that exam week is right around the corner. The printer is buzzing with buttloads of documents that need to be printed off and the course folders are slowly becoming fuller and fuller. But sometimes it seems that the more work you have to master, the more you put it off. Highly common among students, this phenomenon is termed procrastination. Whereas continuous procrastination might result in a psychological disorder, I am only going to outline the most common procrastination strategies that all students are familiar with.

Better, faster, stronger

Articles about doping have been in the news for years. Runners take drugs to become faster, cyclists to increase their endurance and bodybuilders to become even more powerful. We’ve heard it all. But the latest news about doping is different, surprising and shocking at the same time. Apparently, doping is not just used to enhance physical power and stamina anymore but also to increase cognitive capabilities. The latest followers of this trend: children. 

Stay disciplined!

Can you remember when you were a kid and your parents told you not to do this and to keep your hands from that? It might have gone something like, “We are about to have dinner so don’t eat that brownie now!” or “Don’t touch that! It’s antique!” You probably heard a lot of these kinds of things, didn’t you? And can you remember whether you did what you were told? Well, you better start thinking about it because it might give you some serious information about your life!

If you were obedient, you are probably pretty successful right now. You did great in school, you never had problems with drugs or alcohol and you didn’t have an acting-out phase in your teenage years, right? At least according to psychologist Terrie Moffitt of Duke University in North Carolina, that’s what your life is supposed to be like. Based on a study by Walter Mischel from the late 1960’s, a research team around Moffitt wanted to find out whether there is a correlation between success in life and self-discipline or willpower. In order to find out, they tested 1000 children from New Zealand over a span of about 30 years and an additional 500 British children aged 4 to 12.

SlimSmoke

 “If I quit smoking, I’ll gain weight. So I’d rather have a smoke or two per day.” This is a statement heard frequently by people looking for excuses to keep smoking. Not wanting to gain weight is a fine reason to continue smoking – especially for women. But is it possible that they really have a point here?

According to a study by Marina Picciotto from Yale University they actually do. Her research team found out that the substance nicotine docks onto neuronal receptors in the brain which then send a message to the body that it has had enough to eat and can stop asking for food.

It's Upper Austrian first, Austrian second

During one of my English courses for the University of Cambridge Proficiency Exam, I met the PA to the CEO of a large Austrian company operating out of Linz. She told me how difficult it was to recruit employees from Vienna, Graz or Innsbruck to work in Linz. According to her, it would be much easier find someone from Hamburg or Berlin willing to move to Linz than from anywhere within Austria. That struck me as very odd. After all, we sold our house and moved the whole family to Upper Austria for professional reasons. Admittedly, you have to put in the effort and be prepared to adjust to some extent. But, on the whole, it’s by no means impossible to settle down and find friends in new surroundings. And for employees from Graz, Vienna or Klagenfurt, it would only mean moving within Austria. Not to a foreign country! But I’m not sure these potential employees see it like that. Even when they are prepared to accept a job in Linz, actually living there is a different matter altogether. One of my husband’s colleagues commutes between Vienna and Linz on a daily basis, another one between Salzburg and Linz.

Who wants to be a nobody?

A lot has been written lately about the importance of titles in various societies and the means people are prepared to use to get hold of one. Personally, I’m glad that Mr. von Guttenberg was found out and had to resign from his post. And there should have been no reason whatsoever why the report of the university committee that looked into the plagiarism should not have been published. During his time as Minister of Defense, Mr. von Guttenberg constantly surrounded himself with journalists and couldn’t get enough publicity. So why should the public have been excluded when the scandal broke?

Nature Staycation

When thinking of holiday most people immediately think of going abroad as well, no matter what they want to do during their vacation. Travelling to other countries in order to experience nature and various cultures is certainly something wonderful and exciting. But sometimes the own country has to offer unique treasures, natives just don’t see anymore because they are always present and thus no longer attractive. Especially Austria’s nature has so much to offer, that it is a real pity to go abroad for a hiking or ski trip. No matter what season, there is always something to do in Austria’s alpine upland. 

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The Young Directors Project 2011

© http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/ydp2011/default.html

The Salzburg Festival is usually associated with high-class performances that create a certain elitist touch to the whole event. Since 2002, Jürgen Flimm, the former director for drama, decided to bring a new project into life that offers young international artists the chance to present their work during the summer season at the Salzburg Festival. The so-called Young Directors Project celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year and turned into a permanent feature of the artistic summer scene of the city of Salzburg. Montblanc International sponsors the project and awards the best performance every year.

Fat Integration...

Think back to your school days. Each day your mum used to pack your lunchbox and each day during the break you used to sit down to eat with some of your classmates or maybe even all of them. And during this break one of the other kids would probably unpack a lunch that was more than questionable for your taste. This might have been certain parts of animals which you would have never thought about eating or maybe rice and vegetables, which doesn’t sound strange in itself, but in order to eat it the kid used chop sticks. Seriously, what's the point of picking up one grain of rice after the other when a fork would come in so much handier? This kid was probably not the most well integrated in your school. Do eating habits have such tremendous effects on society that immigrants have problems getting integrated if they stick with their manners?

A paradise for culture enthusiasts

Salzburg

In 2005, the famous Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena gave birth to her first son with the even more famous British conductor Sir Simon Rattle (chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra). And she decided she wanted her child to be born in Salzburg. At first sight, this might seem surprising, given the fact that neither of the parents had been born or even lived in Salzburg themselves. Or had any familial ties there. But taking into consideration Salzburg’s pre-eminent rank within the world of classical music, its worldwide reputation as a cultural centre, this decision of a world-class singer becomes more easily understandable. After all, it was in Salzburg that Kozena won the 1995 International Mozart Competition.

Plastic?—Fantastic!

What do you associate with plastic furniture? Those shaky cheap plastic chairs that almost collapse when you merely look at them? For a very long time, plastic translated to cheap, not very robust and certainly not stylish. But times have changed. The Italian company Kartell, founded in 1949, is the main producer of contemporary plastic furniture. Over the years they’ve managed to change plastic’s reputation for the better and, along with renowned designers, among them Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio, Ron Arad, Anna Castelli Ferrieri and Ferruccio Laviani, they’ve created design icons. At this year’s fair in Milan, you could take a trip through time and have a look at all of Kartell’s icons. Let me introduce you to some of their most memorable pieces. You’ll probably find out that you’ve actually seen some of them before and just didn’t know how famous they were.

Salzburg Festival Youth Subscriptions

In April I blogged about the Salzburg Festival, where I also mentioned the Youth Subscription (Jugendabo) provided by the Salzburg Festival. (Link) The ticket packages are now available to purchase until the end of June, so everybody who is interested should contact Eva Schörghofer as soon as possible. They offer sixteen different subscriptions in total with tickets for operas, dramas and concerts. One subscription is about EUR 60 and includes three tickets for different performances.

I hope that lots of you make use of this very special offer to see some of the festival’s great performances. If you want to know more about it, please leave a comment or contact me.

Breakfast 6 km… Death 4 km (Part III)

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León was the first stopover where we stayed for two days to take a break and recharge our batteries. We arrived there after a walk of 180 kilometres where we got ourselves a hotel room with our own bathroom (which was pure luxury after ten days of group showers) and dinner in the evening. After both of us had taken an extensive shower, we got dressed up, which meant that we wore long trousers and slippers instead of shorts and walking boots. The restaurant owners were fortunately used to pilgrims, so we had no problems getting a table in our outfit. Because it was the first meal for ages, we were truly excited when the waiter served our pasta and red wine. Unfortunately, we didn’t even manage to eat half of our dinner and after one glass of wine we both felt so drunk that we decided to go home and sleep. Back at our hotel room it took us not more than five minutes until we fell asleep and didn’t wake up before noon the next day.   

Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you fight with your neighbour. It makes you shoot at your landlord and it makes you miss him. (Irish Proverb)

I am not going to conceal the fact that a huge part of Erasmus involves going out and partying your butt off. If I did, I would deprive you of all the fun. When you’re in a foreign country where you don’t know anyone the easiest way to get to know people is to go out and have a beer (or two … or maybe three). I would also be lying if I said that I am a person who doesn’t go out much. I am definitely not one to refrain from a good pub crawl. I would like to dedicate this post to all of my friends with whom I had so many great nights out in Dublin.

Less is a bore

Over the last few weeks you’ve already seen a lot, but the furniture business has much more to offer. Some companies stand out simply because their furniture is vivid and eccentric. The German company, Bretz, manufacturer of handmade upholstery, is one of them. The company’s website says “The masters of Bretz couture blend craftsmanship with passion, quality with imagination, tradition with avant-garde”. But Bretz is not only famous for their furniture, their saucy promotional pictures have definitely contributed to them establishing their brand worldwide. The 2011 campaign was shot by renowed photographer Udo Spreitzenbarth, who has done photoshoots for Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, to name but a few. Each picture has an extreme emotional appeal. The outcome is provocative, rebellious and even radical.

So, let’s take a walk on the wild side this time—but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Meat-Eaters versus Vegetarians: The Showdown - Part 1

There are Africans and Americans, Christians and Hindus, Blacks and Whites, rich people and poor people, but for some people there are only two kinds of people: Meat-eaters and vegetarians.

Can You Help Us, Please?

Can You Help Us, Please?

We all know those young, motivated and unbelievably persistent promoters on the streets with their “Save our Planet” and “Against Animal Abuse” folders. We’ve all seen those little Asian, African or South-American kids looking down from billboards along the roads of every city in the world. Further, everyone of us knows events like the Life Ball in Vienna or has heard of similar events where celebrities like George Clooney and his BFFs Angelina and Brad demonstrate how incomparably charitable they are. But how many people do you know who actually donate something to a good cause? All those wealthy stars are only a small number among the billions of people whom charity companies try to reach. Do you donate?

A completely unscientific insight into acculturation

When you spend a lot of time in Ireland, you change in many ways without even noticing it. There are certain Irish characteristics, phrases, words and habits you simply adapt to. The truth is that at first you make fun of these things until you suddenly realise that you’re becoming more and more like your Irish friends. This acculturation takes place on many levels. Here are the results of my experience-based on, completely unscientific research.

London Calling ... (Part 1)

Here´s a popular question: Where do you see yourself in five, ten or fifteen years? If somebody asked me this question, I´m not quite sure what my answer would be. I know for sure that I want to work in journalism, as I have mentioned in earlier blog posts. But this field is huge.

Breakfast 6 km… Death 4 km (Part II)

We had exactly three weeks to arrive in Santiago de Compostela, the third largest pilgrimage site after Rome and Jerusalem. My friend and I are not religious at all, so our trip through Spain was exclusively a personal challenge with a lot of ups and downs. We wanted to test how far we could go without anything else than our shoulders could carry. In the beginning, our backpacks had been a way bigger challenge than the walking itself, but after some time we got used to the weight on our shoulders. In the end our feet turned out to be the biggest problem and there were several other difficulties we had to overcome, of which more later. 

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talk, talk, talk

Calling your parents when you’re having problems at work, meeting a good friend for coffee to discuss your spouse’s bad habits or sitting down on the couch with a loved one to talk about your day makes a lot of people feel better. Knowing that there is someone who listens and understands is very important for many of us. However, there are also people who like to deal with their problems in solitude. They don't talk to others much and when they do it is mainly superficial.

Although for some of us a solitary lifestyle is what we want, these people should definitely reconsider talking to others about significant things. A recent study by a group of psychologists from the University of Arizona and Washington University in St. Louis has proven that talking makes us happy.