Sucky presentations

I don't know why, but last week, I witnessed three presentations in three different classes, and all three of them were...not very good.
In the first class, "The Canterbury Tales", the two girls who did the presentation had prepared the wrong topic, which resulted in a lot of organizational problems, because they had prepared someone else's topic. They basically asked the girl who chose next week's topic to let them do it and, well, she'd still be able to do something else, right?! Thank god the teacher didn't go for it.Unfortunately for the rest of us, that meant the girls had to improvise. Which they did, and they did it poorly. First of all, they weren't even sure what the text
 (The Pardoner's Tale) was about, because of the "difficult language" (Middle English). What the hell? There's Modern English versions of the text and even German translations. If you don't understand it in the original, go look it up in another version. But no!
There was also no use of any kind of media, they just sat there and talked for 90 minutes straight. Most of the time, they didn't know what they were talking about, and the class fell asleep.
The second horrible presentation happened in our "Science Fiction Films" class. Of the three group members, only one did the talking. This time, there was a great Power Point presentation, and they used film clips, but unfortunately, the girl did not mention the main themes of the movie once. She did lots of fancy media stuff, but the content was all over the place. She tried to involve the class, but all she got was a "No, thank you" silence. The good thing for evil little bitches like me was that in the end, the professor told her that it was a crappy presentation, and that she had obviously not understood what the movie was really about. At all. He put it nicely, but he was rather pissed.
And then in the last class of that same day, disaster struck. One member of the group was missing, and this person had been responsible for their Power Point. As they went along with their presentation, we found out that there were two major parts missing. The group decided to leave these parts out, not even trying to improvise, making this presentation implode. This was enhanced by the complete lack of basic knowledge of linguistics that four out of five people showed(I hate linguistics, but even I remember the basics). One of the presenters used his laptop for notes, cradling it in his arm, and then he constantly lost his train of thought, AND where he was in his note. It was the most ridiculous thing to watch ever.
I understand that sometimes you have to give a presentation on a topic that is not your field of expertise. So sometimes the content may not be so great and not in as much depth as you might hope for. But you can always be well prepared, know the most important information, and answer the basic questions that come along with every topic.
Rant over ;)

Misconceptions about dieting (roommate style)

When my roommate found out I was going on a diet for a week (this was a couple of weeks ago), I got the typical reaction: "Oh, I should lose some weight, too. I'm gonna do it with you. What does the diet look like?" So I told him that for a week, you basically live on fruit, vegetables, and salads with some healthy protein sources. Immediately, his face went blank and he backed out, because that is "hard" and he "can't do it".
First of all, duh!, you won't lose weight if you keep eating like you always do and/or don't work out more. And secondly, it's just for a week. Anyway, I stuck to my diet plan and it worked really well; I lost 2.5 kilos in seven days, and when I told my roommate, I got that very same "I should diet, too"-response. After that, he amused me almost every day with his misconceptions about dieting and excuses for him not getting it done right. Here are my personal highlights:
On the day he first found out how much I lost, he told me (filled with pride and a smug grin on his face) that he had only eaten a slice of toast for breakfast and then nothing else for most of the day. At that time, it was evening, and he was shoving junk food down his throat. It was so ridiculous that I forgot all about politeness and told him what I thought (not much appreciated, though). I said, dude, that's not how it works. It's not about eating less, it's mostly about eating healthier without making your body feel too hungry -> eat regularly. He was visibly disappointed that I wasn't impressed by his "dieting" and that I basically told him that his approach doesn't work. But that's not my fault, I think.

The next day, he holds up a bag of cereals he bought for his "diet". Unfortunately, it wasn't any kind of grain-y cereal, but chocolate puffs. I say it again, CHOCOLATE PUFFS. He tried to convince me that cereals are healthy, and that since chocolate puffs are in the cereal section of the supermarket, chocolate puffs are healthy and will therefore help him lose weight. This time I didn't bother speaking my mind, because it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway. But on the inside I was doubling over laughing at the thought that people are seriously convinced that chocolate puffs will help you lose weight. I mean, man, just take a look at the calories they list on the package. It has A LOT of calories and sugar and will make you crave more sugar.

The third highlight was when my roomie realized that I work out for at least an hour every day except Tuesdays. Again, he was all talk, no action. He said, yeah, he really needed to work out and he's even got a membership at some gym. The reason why he doesn't go: he doesn't have the right shoes. At that point, I was beyond commenting. You can get shoes for twenty bucks, it's not that difficult. And if you don't do hardcore training (which I assume he doesn't), you don't need the 150 euros pro-shoes, the cheaper ones will do just fine.

But this is my roommate. Sometimes I think he only says all these things so that I tell him he doesn't need to lose weight, looks good etc. But I'm not here to stroke his ego, and when it's not true, I'm not gonna say it just so that he can sit back and relax. I'm not telling him that he could use some diet and workout, either, don't get me wrong, I'm not that much of an asshole. But I won't lie.

Ist Reiten Sport?

„Reiten ist ja gar kein richtiger Sport!“ Es gibt wohl keinen Pferdefreund der Welt, der diesen Satz so oder so ähnlich nicht schon einmal gehört hat. Es sind vor allem jene nicht-reitenden Mitmenschen, die diesen Standpunkt vertreten. Ihr Argument: Der Reiter sitzt ja nur als Pilot obendrauf, die Muskelarbeit macht das Pferd größtenteils alleine.

Letzteres wird kein Reiter bestreiten wollen, natürlich trägt das Pferd den größeren Anteil der Kraftanstrengung. Das heißt aber nicht, dass der Reiter auf seinem Rücken sich nicht ebenfalls sportlich betätigt. Jeder, der schon einmal eine Verstärkung oder Seitengänge einigermaßen korrekt geritten ist, wird bestätigen können, dass man sogar als fortgeschrittener Reiter noch manchmal Muskelkater bekommt. Hier liegt nämlich der gravierende Unterschied: Sich von einem Pferd durch die Gegend schaukeln zu lassen ist nicht „Reiten“.

Trotzdem ist schon das bloße Sitzen auf einem sich in den drei Gangarten bewegenden Pferd durchaus sportlich. Der Reiter muss seine Balance finden und halten, er muss sich den Bewegungen des Pferdes anpassen, weil es sonst eine sehr holprige Angelegenheit wird. Das setzt ein ständiges An- und Abspannen der gesamten Rumpf- und Gesäßmuskulatur voraus. Sowohl zu viel, als auch zu wenig Spannung verhindern, dass der Reiter sich den Bewegungen des Pferdes anpassen kann und er mutiert schnell zum Wurfgeschoss. Korrekte Hilfen lassen sich nur durch unabhängiges Anspannen von Teilen der Muskulatur, Entspannen anderer Muskelgruppen, minimale Gewichtsverlagerungen und ein ständiges Annehmen und Nachgeben umsetzten.

Mit der körperlichen Belastung vergleichbare Disziplinen bei den „richtigen“ Sportarten sind zum Beispiel das Turnern und die Gymnastik, bei denen ebenfalls konstant zwischen An- und Entspannung der Muskulatur gewechselt wird. Um auf dem Schwebebalken glänzen zu können, müssen die Turnerinnen wie die Reiter auch das richtige Gleichgewicht aus Anspannung und Lockerheit finden. Und das Absolvieren einer mehrere Kilometer langen Vielseitigkeitsstrecke im zügigen Galopp kommt durch die ähnliche Körperhaltung den Belastungen der Ski-Abfahrt schon sehr nahe; nicht ganz so intensiv und rasant, dafür aber über eine längere Zeit.

Es gibt außerdem einen weiteren nicht zu unterschätzenden Faktor: Die Mentale Anstrengung beim Reiten. Denn das Pferd folgt den Hilfen des Reiters. Daraus lässt sich logisch folgern, dass der Reiter immer etwas vorausdenken muss, um die Hilfen zum richtigen Zeitpunkt geben zu können. Zugleich muss sich der Reiter auch immer „das große Ganze“ vor Augen halten, den Parcours oder die Dressuraufgabe zum Beispiel. Reiter sind nicht nur Sportler, sondern eben auch Strategen, wie Schachspieler (wenn Schach Sport ist, dann Reiten ja wohl auch?!) und Sportschützen, aber auch Spieler in den Mannschaftssportarten. Während sich die mentale Anstrengung beim Laufen mehr auf das Durchhalten und linker Fuß-rechter Fuß beschränkt, ist beim Reiten unter körperlicher Belastung eine sehr hohe Denkleistung gefordert, die es so bei nur wenigen anderen olympischen Sportarten gibt.

„Olympisch“ ist ein gutes Stichwort. Denn seit der Antike sind Pferde Teil der Olympischen Spiele und haben damit vielen der uns heute bekannten Disziplinen (inklusive der gesamten Winterspiele) einiges voraus. Zuerst waren es die Wagenrennen und Galopprennen; übrigens ohne Sattel zu Reiten, den gab es damals nämlich nicht. Allein deshalb sollten die Reitwettbewerbe als elementarer Teil der Olympischen Sommerspiele betrachtet werden; und Olympische Disziplin kann man nicht sein, wenn man keine richtige Sportart ist. Natürlich folgt diese Argumentation dem Schema vom Huhn und vom Ei, aber Reiten als Sportart war eben zuerst da!

Schönheit, Schönheit über alles

Dick, dünn, sportlich. Groß, klein, mittel. Hübsch, hässlich, normal. „Was bin ich, und wenn ja, wie viele?“

Noch nie war die Gesellschaft in den Industrieländern so besessen von Schönheit. Glaubt man den Hochglanzmagazinen und Hollywood, dann ist Frau nur wer, wenn sie in Klamotten der Größe „0“ (entspricht einer 32 in Deutschland) passt. Politiker, Ärzte und alle, die aus welchem Grund auch immer nicht in diese Kleidergröße passen, halten dagegen: Wer nicht von Natur aus sehr dünn ist, schadet seiner Gesundheit erheblich, wenn er sich auf diese Kindergröße runter hungert. Und überhaupt, Skelette sind doch nicht attraktiv, oder? Richtige Frauen haben Kurven. Aber kein Fett. Nein, Muskeln sollen es sein. Aber bitte nicht zu viele. Frau soll ja noch feminin aussehen. Schwaches Geschlecht und so. Auch das mit der Körpergröße ist so eine Sache. Frau soll bitte kleiner sein als ihr männlicher Begleiter, andernfalls wird dessen Ego wohl empfindlich gestört. Aber auch nicht zu klein, bitte, denn lange Beine muss sie ja trotzdem haben.

Die grobe Form wäre damit geschaffen. Zeit, sich um die Details zu kümmern. Blond oder brünett? Hat beides seine Vor- und Nachteile, wird gerne behauptet. Die Praxis allerdings beweist, dass lange, blonde Haare einer der prominentesten Schlüsselreize für Männer sind und wohl auch immer sein werden. Und wenn blond, dann bitte auch mit blauen Augen, denn halbe Sachen wollen wir nicht. Volle, sinnliche Lippen soll sie haben und eine kleine, gerade, unauffällige Nase. Ganz wichtig, als Sahnehäubchen: Wangenknochen. Je mehr man diese sieht, desto edler die Gesichtszüge. Gute, straffe Haut ist ein Muss, nicht nur im Gesicht. Altersunabhängig sind Falten, Dellen und andere Unregelmäßigkeiten nicht erwünscht.

Und? Wenn Sie in den Spiegel schauen, würden Sie dann in die oben beschriebene Form passen? Das ist unwahrscheinlich, aber verzagen Sie nicht. Dagegen kann man ja was tun: Diäten, ausgeklügelte Fitnessprogramme, Cremes und Lotionen, Haarcolorationen, gefärbte Kontaktlinsen, Make-up. Und wenn das alles nicht hilft, dann vereinbaren Sie doch einfach einen Termin mit dem Plastischen Chirurgen Ihres Vertrauens…

Roomie-Rant No.2

Warning: Another roomie-rant. Between me and my roommate, in 100% of the cases, I'm up first. I walk through the apartment on the tips of my toes, take hours to open and close doors with as little noise as possible. I don't make breakfast until he's up, so that I don't wake him. But here's the thing: sometimes I'm up early, but stay in my room and read, so my roommate must think I'm still asleep because you don't hear and see me. And you'd think that, like me, he would try to be quiet because I'm still "asleep". Ha! Haha!!! Oh no, not him. Why would he?! He's the man! He might just as well chase an elephant through the apartment for all the noise he creates. Doors bang, he drops things, turns on the radio in the bathroom on a volume level that enables him to still hear it in the kitchen and living room, and sings along with the music (horribly so, I might add; the guy can't hit a single note). I mean, what the fuck, right?!

So my resolution is this: when I get up at 6 am, I will not walk on tiptoes. I will open and close doors normally, and I will make breakfast whenever I feel like it, regardless whether he's up or not. Because I'm over being unselfish, when I get absolutely nothing in return.

People who don't have a life

There is one thing that drives me nuts: people who don't have a life but think they do and judge others who do a lot more because these people think that's "tooooo-tally competitive". But what kind of life is it where you can't keep a job, even though the jobs aren't that fancy to begin with. What kind of life is it, where you spend all of your free time spread out on the couch watching TV without really watching, and spend the rest of the time sleeping?! How can you have a life without a hobby, or ambitions, or aspirations?! And I don't mean the kind of aspirations where you think you'll be a manager of a big firm one day and get the fat pay check just because you say that you should get a job like that. Be realistic! How can you ever make a professional career, let alone be a manager, if you're not used to work hard, not used to having a hectic schedule, and are not "tooooo-tally competitive". You cannot have a career if you never pick up a book just for the sake of educating yourself, no matter what topic. You cannot have a career, if even organizing your "life" that consists of sleep, a not too challenging job, watching TV without really watching TV, and more sleep. If you want a career, a full life, you have to get out of bed. Because the day only has so many hours, a week only so many days. Yes, it's hard sometimes. But do you want to look back and think: Let's see, what did I do with my life? I slept, watched some TV - but I can't remember what-, and I did a job I hated but never tried realistically to change it, to push myself to the next level.
To me, that is sad. And I would pity these people, if it were not for their ignorance: these people think something is wrong with me because I read all texts and books and essays I need for university. They think I'm weird because I get up a couple of hours earlier to work out, or do homework, or write stuff for the pleasure of writing. These people don't understand that after a long day of class, I stay up, work out more, do more homework, read more, write more, and look for a side job, to earn more. I know I'm gonna get something in return for my efforts at one point or another in my life, because I work my butt off in different areas of life. I know that effort and hard work create the kinds of opportunities these other people call luck and think are heaven-sent and unfair. I know better. (But these people bug me anyway ;P)

Motivation and procrastinating

I feel a little schizophrenic at the moment. In one part of my life, I'm super motivated and stick to my plans and schedules: I'm still on the 7-Day Slim Down and things are going great, even though I substitute stuff every now and then because I just don't like some of the veggies etc. they want you to eat. And I'm also really into working out at the moment. I hardly do any running because it's cold and dark outside, but I take at least one fitness or yoga or dance class a day (except for Tuesday; I've got classes all day then). I'm also planning to increase the numbers of classes once I'm done with this very strict diet on Sunday.
But when it comes to the work I need to get done for university, I'm not motivated at all. I spend too much time online, or watching TV, instead of getting this stupid stuff done. It's not even that difficult or challenging. So starting tomorrow, I will have to really kick my butt to get this stuff done, too, and at the same time keep up the good work when it comes to nutrition and working out. I also have to start working on my fiction writing again. I've got a million ideas and some stories already fairly worked out, but now I have to write it down. I'm really pissed at myself right now, and starting tonight after my very first Zumba class, I will make myself do stuff that just needs to be done!