{"id":89,"date":"2016-09-01T06:26:33","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T06:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/09\/01\/august-2016\/"},"modified":"2022-11-15T20:36:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T18:36:54","slug":"august-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/2016\/09\/august-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"August: Lists, Memorials, and Relationship Luxury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Leaves\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For the time after my last day at work (I quit my job mid-August), I had a list prepared. I wrote down stuff that needed to be done for a long time, such as fixing the shelf in the kitchen, getting a new passport, or cleaning the windows. It also featured fun things like museums I\u2019ve always wanted to go to, people I haven\u2019t seen in a while, movies I wanted to watch.<\/p>\n

August is over now, and I\u2019ve been out of the day job for about three weeks. No surprise: I haven\u2019t crossed-off a single item on the aforementioned list. Instead, my days were spent with the following: Waiting for the letter of acceptance for the master\u2019s program I applied for (which I got today, finally!). Taking pictures of people taking pictures (they usually pose in an equally majestic way as the statue they\u2019re photographing). I walked through Prague, wondering if I would find all the old buildings more interesting if there were some new ones in between. And while watching Stranger Things, I really wished it was set in the 90s rather than the 80s, just for a stylistic change. I enjoyed the series, but the\u00a080s-aesthetics-card<\/a> has been played way too often already. I could handle some flared pants, lava lamps and leather coats by now. (Ok, maybe no flared pants.)<\/p>\n

I visited Vienna, and fell in love with the city. We spent a lot of time in those typical coffeehouses; places you can hardly find in Germany anymore: Old wooden furniture, piano music; everything smells as if you could write great novels in here. Also, I don\u2019t have a lot of friends who enjoy wasting time in coffeehouses as much as I do. We get used to positive habits about the people close to us; we take them as a luxury that we don\u2019t want to miss in future relationships. That\u2019s why finding the right friends is hard, sometimes.<\/p>\n

Other notes noticed:<\/p>\n

1) The current run on the mattress market by startups [sic!] is insane. Every month, there is a new company trying to revolutionize the way we buy mattresses (quick reminder that one should switch their mattress every 10 to 12 years). I appreciate it, because I appreciate sleep. In his Aeon essay\u00a0\u201cFalling For Sleep\u201d<\/a>, Rubin Naiman explores how our perception and appreciation of it changed.<\/p>\n

2) Ever wondered why dumb people seem so confident? Ever felt really unsure, even though you\u2019re usually a smart person? It\u2019s called Dunning-Kruger effect<\/a>, and describes the cognitive bias of illusory superiority.<\/p>\n

3) Park benches<\/a> are a better memorial than tombstones.<\/p>\n

4) I wonder: Is there a sign that things are not quite right? Symbols from movies (a flickering light in the dark street, a black cat running across it) evoke so. So vice versa, what are the signs that everything is quite alright at the moment?\u00a0It feels so, anyway. August brought summer back, I went swimming in a lake for the first time this year, and I\u2019m ready for autumn now. September, make me tick some more things that are not on the list.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Enjoyed this oddly arranged collection of words? You can sign up to my e-mail newsletter here: Christel\u2019s Corner on Tinyletter<\/a>. \u2728<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the time after my last day at work (I quit my job mid-August), I had a list prepared. I wrote down stuff that needed to be done for a long time, such as fixing the shelf in the kitchen, getting a new passport, or cleaning the windows. It also featured fun things like museums … August: Lists, Memorials, and Relationship Luxury<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1206],"tags":[140,169,44,41,40,3,39,168,43],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christels-corner","tag-140","tag-august","tag-christels-corner","tag-english","tag-newsletter","tag-schreiben","tag-tagebuch","tag-vienna","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2742,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/2742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christowski.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}