thoughts

(to girls and boys)

I am sure each and everyone of you has been „struck“ by this  beautiful and overwhelming feeling at least once in your lives. Beautiful and overwhelming?! Yeah, sure!

It usually takes you by surprise, hits you right in the face and leaves you there helpless and lost.

I would not consider myself the jealous type of girl. See, I’ve got this great set of principles I am trying to stay true to. A man who does not appreciate everything I have to offer – looks, brains and especially my willingness to devote myself completely to the man I love – is DEFINITELY not worth the effort.

Still, I have recently found myself torn between feelings of love and fear, sadness and anger! I never thought I would doubt my man’s love! I never thought I would see our connection be in danger. Romantic and stupid at the same time.

After some days of thinking and doubting, I have finally found a way to deal with those feelings – mainly because I am sick of wrapping my mind around my man thinking about other women! Here it is!

Flirting is OK if your lovers think they need it. If they do not know how special you are and if they like wasting their energy for some meaningless and trashy fling – then you should let them go for it!

You are worth way more than that!

Don’t let anybody EVER tell you anything else!

I was wondering whether you have ever considered inventing an “Apple Family of the Year” Award

I am asking because my family – being my hubby-to-be, our unborn baby (due at the beginning of September) and me – would perfectly qualify for it.

Inspired by your Stanford commencement address in 2005, I would like to tell you our very personal “Apple” Story.

When my fiancé and I got together in March 2006, he already had one of your great 60GB iPods. Being a big fan of yours, he thought I should join the club and gave me an iPod nano as a birthday gift in May. This is how our story began.

It didn’t take long and I got my next gift - one of those awesome Nike + iPod Sport Kits and a Nike Sport Armband. And off I ran! Believe me, I have been the star in every gym and on every path or road I have been running on since then. My computer is already filled with lots of running profiles, reaching from 2006 up to 2008.

In 2007, my fiancé and I went to New York for 10 days to take our love for Apple products to the next level.

The shiny and at the same time awesome-looking Apple glass cube on Fifth Avenue had to be our first shopping destination, of course. My fiancé got all excited walking down the stairs, thrilled by its size and design. We had sworn ourselves to just “have a look”. After all, it was our first day in New York.

Well, this is what ACTUALLY happened. After strolling around in the store for about an hour, admiring all the computers, iPods, iPhones and other devices and gadgets, we both ended up buying a Mac – a silver MacBook Pro for my fiancé who is in programming and system development and a black MacBook for me to look all fancy and up-to-date at work and at university where I am currently doing my Ph.D.

Since we live in Austria, we couldn’t just stop there. So we bought two sets of adapters, different programs and a black MacBook case. One of our most life-changing purchases was the Apple TV Box. No more DVDs piled up on our shelves! As soon as we got home from the States we started copying our movies, saving them on our external hard-disks (we’ve had to buy 4 new ones since then ) and watching our movies via Apple TV.

If you checked our iTunes account you would probably find us under “Craziest People Spending Loads of Money on iTunes”. We are more-than-regular customers when it comes to music, movies as well as TV shows.

Christmas 2007 I was surprised one more time. I got the much longed for iPhone. People were all going “Ah” and “Oh” seeing me with it. When they asked me where I had gotten it from I just said: Santa Claus. Soon after that my fiancé got himself one, too.

In February this year, my beloved fiancé turned 30! I felt this strong urge and wish to give him something special … something to remember. So I bought him a 23″ Apple Cinema Display. You should have seen his face!
We even documented the whole unpacking and setting up process with pictures. He has never loved sitting at the computer and working more. A dark brown – orange Crumpler case especially made for MacBook Pro’s was just a little extra.

Going with the display, we have got a German keyboard as well – you know, because of all those weird letters German-speaking people use. In the course of the last few months my fiancé thought we had to have the Time Capsule as well. I have to say – it has made working a lot more fun and way safer!!! (I am a specialist when it comes to accidentally deleting top important files )

Now that the iPhone 3G is out, we are already thinking about getting that one too.

What I am trying to say is that we admire your and your team’s work. We are delighted by your innovative and elegant inventions and impressed by the enormous number of great ideas you have come up with in the past years.

You should know that there is a little family out there (South of Austria, to be precise ) fascinated by you as a person and businessman as well as by your outstanding and great products.

We wish you all the best!

B + S + a little Apple fan-to-be

PS. Maybe you could give that “Apple Family of the Year” Award some thought?!
PPS. I hope our email did not go directly into your spam filter.

Why would three little boys, not older than 5 years, start throwing stones at sweet little baby ducks? Why would they be laughing their butts off and wishing to finally hit one of those tiny, innocent creatures? I can tell you why!

Because their parents are probably the same dumb, ruthless and disrespectful human beings, who – in my opinion, which I know is harsh but fair – should not have the right to share this planet with us and those cute, little ducklings!

How you find your way round your workplace very much depends on you as a working person!

If you are just some pot plant standing around and waiting for someone to tell you what to do, then you’ll probably be just fine.

If you are one of those slimy people who permanently tell their bosses HOW MUCH work they have done in only half a month (like fill in some forms, answer about 9 emails and send out 2 letters of request), you might be alright, as well.

If you are, however, one of those people who like taking on responsibility, are not afraid of thinking for themselves and actually take their job extremely seriously, you are, FOR SURE, having a hard time!

A hard time fighting ignorance and stupidity! A hard time dealing with “colleagues” who may, for some reason unknown and unclear to you, have a position higher than yours even though they should be the ones bringing you coffee! And a hard time because most of the time you seem to be working for nothing, even though you know that without you your workplace would be way more of a mess than it is anyways!

Slowly but surely spring is coming up. Beautiful flowers are popping up, singing birds make waking up in the morning a whole lot easier and the sun is no longer afraid of brightening up our days. Heavy winter coats and oversized pullovers finally disappear into the darkness of our closets and we can actually tell the difference between night and day again.

Thinking of spring I inevitably have to think about a few unpleasant realities, as well. Think magazines! More specifically, think magazines for girls and women! What do you see?

RIGHT! Cover pages and plenty of magazine space crammed with “useful” tips and tricks how to lose AAAaalll the weight we have put on over the winter months.

There are stunningly beautiful supermodels, well-known celebrities and perfect strangers smiling at us trying to sell their all-time favorite spring diets or miraculous sports programs.

20 pounds in only 2 days!

There are all kinds of suggestions on how to cut back on all the fat and carbohydrates we love so much, pictures of meals consisting of nothing but vitamins and air, and scrutinizingly detailed explanations of sportive movements only circus artists and aliens seem to be able to perform.

I have not come across a single article yet telling me I should be satisfied with myself because I am as perfect as I can be.

DON’T you think it’s high time those magazines cut us ladies some slack?!

You don’t need no suicidal fitness program or anti-age wonders! What you REALLY need is a great deal of sunny days, time for yourselves, and lots and lots of fun! And I promise, you’ll be all sexy and irresistible by the time your bikini is dying to be put on.

Picture this: you are sitting in your office not daring to look outside because the weather is just too bad. You are minding your own business, working on the computer when all of a sudden the door is opened and a lady steps in with a beautiful bouquet or red roses. They are for you … From your boyfriend, husband, the love of your life.

What’s your first thought?

Are you just happy smiling from one ear to the other dreaming about that guy who has once again enchanted and surprised you ooooor do you think he has done something wrong, like cheating on you, and wants to make up for it?

Well, honey, the latter definitely makes you a freak (except for those girls, of course, who have seriously experienced something like that already).

The first one makes you a person who still believes in love, romance and surprises!!! Have a happy and cheerful day, girls!

I am really glad a new year has finally started. Done with all the old baggage I was dragging along for so many months. Strange, but true! The clock said ‘midnight’ and I felt like a new human being, completely free and definitely ready to conquer the world.

I wish you all a beautiful, successful, and most importantly, fulfilling 2008!

Don’t let the world out there get you! Take chances and be happy as much as you can! Every moment you are not happy and smiling is a lost moment – you will never get it back, that’s for sure!

Loving is one of the hardest things to do. You cannot love half-hearted or only a little. If you really love you have to love unconditionally. That, however, means that you completely trust somebody other than yourself. It means that you learn to accept things you usually have a hard time dealing with. Loving is a risky business. It’s not a deal you can close and be happy about at the end of the day. It’s lifelong work, instead. And you never know whether you will win or lose in the end. So, why fall in love in the first place?

Because all the beauty this world has to offer lies in it …

Last night I asked a friend of mine whether she had had a good or a bad day. It was something in the middle, not bad but not exceptionally good either. And then I asked her about her very personal highlight and I realized she didn’t have one. In fact, she had never thought about having highlights at all.

Life is not easy. Most people would say it’s a very rough path we are running down which, as far as I am concerned, makes highlights even more necessary. Now you may be wondering what such a highlight actually is. It can be anything! It can be a good cup of coffee you take your time to enjoy, it can be a child smiling at you or a good chat with one of your friends. It can also be a feeling or a thought you have which has the capacity to keep you going and give you strength. It’s up to every single one to decide what they consider their highlight.

Just, don’t let another day pass without something special crossing your way. A day without a personal highlight is a waste and will be forgotten immediately.

You may be emotionally wrecked. You may feel the rain pouring down on you hurting your skin like millions of needles. You may have nobody to smile at you. Emptiness and loneliness may leave nothing but a bitter taste on your lips.

There is one thing, though, that will always be with you - that will always try to make your life a little brighter and the end of your tunnel a little lighter. This one thing is a good piece of music. There may be this one song that makes you stop right there and reflect upon your day and the path you have been walking. This song may revolve around everything you are going through, it may actually tell your story. Listening to it everything becomes clear and you finally know what you have to do: just breathe!

And then move on, one step after the other …

Do you know that feeling? It’s Sunday evening and you are full of Monday’s resolutions. You are pushing millions of thoughts around. If your neural system was a bunch of people a hell of a party would be going on up there. First of all, you swear to quit eating so much late at night. No more sandwiches, no more chips and, of course, no more chocolate. You are 26 years old (in my case, at least ) and you can already see the traces all that crap is leaving on your body which is definitely not OK. You also tell yourself you’ll be going to the gym first thing in the morning, every single day! Oh, and there is this thing at work you would like to do but usually don’t have time to because a whole lot of other things are constantly crossing your way! Next thing on your list: Get down to do all the “I-finally-have-to-take-care-of-that-at-work-thing” things that have been piling up over a couple of months (years???).

It feels great, doesn’t it? All the motivation and enthusiasm you are filled up with at that very moment. It’s good to fall asleep knowing what is awaiting you the next day! A world of changes!

The alarm is ringing. Of course, you confuse it with some weird noise messing with your dream and you wonder why Mister Right is wearing a clock on his head. Oh, right! Alarm! Wake up! You hit the button to shut that thing up. It’s 5.40 in the morning. The “first-thing-in-the-morning” gym opens up at 6. You should get going if you want to be able to do that before you have to go to work. By the way, why is it so dark outside? Oh, right! It’s winter and the sun won’t come up for another one and a half hours. Your man is snuggling up in this great big blanket, which offers so much more safety than the cold and nasty weather outside. Maybe you should go to the gym right after work, before lunch. So, you sleep in a little. You are five minutes late at work but that’s OK since you stayed a little longer on Friday anyway. There it is! That pile of “hasn’t-been-touched-yet” work. You are all ready but then your colleague tells you to do this and that, your boss comes in and has a thousand questions, and all those phone calls to answer. It’s noon. You have been satisfying other people’s needs all morning long without ever being able to deal with your stuff! Of course, you don’t go to the gym at noon either because you got PMS. The afternoon passes by without anything worth mentioning. At night, your boyfriend makes dinner. Now guess, what are you going to get? Since it’s cold and unfriendly outside a bowl of muesli won’t do for sure. Toast bread, scrambled eggs and a couple of mini sandwiches – that’s what you get! Yummy!, but not even close to Monday’s resolutions. When he goes to get some chocolate (it’s December, no wonder people have got chocolate at home around holiday time) you finally give in!

Maybe it would be better to start tomorrow. So you go to bed with a great deal of Tuesday’s resolutions spinning in your head!

All I can say is Good Luck! Or, don’t take life so seriously! You won’t get out alive anyway!

I am sure you will agree when I say that being dumped totally sucks! There you are all in love with the “perfect” guy, fantasizing about a fantastic future together, dreaming of passion and endless love, and then BAM! He tells you he is seeing somebody else.

All of a sudden life doesn’t make sense any more. Now it is definitely time to wonder whether it was your fault. You position yourself in front of the mirror, thinking it might have been those 3 pounds you’ve put on lately. Of course, you also have to admit that you have been a little too needy and clingy. Oh, and that dress you were wearing the other night … unacceptable.

I could go on with this list forever. Coz, let’s face it! That’s something women usually do: We think we are the reason men don’t want us.

I feel incredibly honored to be able to solve one of the greatest mysteries of “woman”kind today: It is nobody’s fault! If a relationship (of any kind) doesn’t work out, it doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you, girls! It just means that two people who thought they might work out don’t. Trust me girls, it’s a good thing to find that out sooner or later. Why waste your precious time on some guy who doesn’t really qualify to be the ONE!

My advice: Get yourself some tan, dress up nicely and walk through life as if nothing and nobody could ever hurt you or mess with your smile. Never forget: It’s not other people responsible for you being happy, it’s YOU! Love will come your way, even if it takes a little while sometimes! (trust me on this one! I am speaking from experience here ;-))

Oh, and if you wake up and feel absolutely devastated because nothing seems to work out, just put on some real good music and DANCE it out!