I want to ride my bicycle!

I like bikes. I love bikes since I learned to drive one at the age of three. I always had a bike. I think he longest time I dind´t ride a bike was about two weeks, when I was on holidays abroad with my family and we couldn´t fit my bicycle in the car. There was the option to rent a bike at the campsite we stayed, but all of them were to small for me. I also always had very good bikes. I was very content with their quality. My father is een more fascinated by bikes than I am, and so I always had support when buying a new bicycle. 

In recent years, my connection to bikes got a little bit...complicated. 

The Ghost SE 5000

(BEST BIKE EVER!!!)

The first ever bike I really had to pay for, a black Ghost SE 5000, got stolen while I was at school. Seldom been so sad.

I really, really loved it. It looked great, the components were top notch, especially the tires, and I had no problems with it whatsoever. It still is the best bike I ever had and I paid a lot for it as a 15-year old boy. Worth every bit of it. 

The bike I got afterwards, the one I still have today, is a  Serious Bicycle. We ordered it online. We had never done that before, and now I say, I would never do it again. The specs of the bike looked good on paper, and it was on sale at the online-store. So we just went for it. It looked nice (a bit similar to my old Ghost), but it was a trap. The brakes were shit (had to repair both of them two times until now), and overall it is just not that great. 

So please, never ever buy a bike online. Always go to a local store, try out some bikes you like, get competent advice and only then buy your new love.

So, this is more or less my bike-story: TL;DR: I love bikes. 

Sometimes I catch myself drooling, because I´m just stunned by a absolutely beautiful bike I see. For example

The Trek Superfly 9.9 SL

or

The Ghost Riot 9 LC

I simply cannot withstand these looks. Especially Mountainbikes. They just have this form, packed with dynamic. The mechnical brilliance with wich these bikes are construced into such an amazing appearance, it just fascinates me. I hope, atleast some of you understand me!

Over to the last point. I´ve found the website of a custom bike manufacturer from Francisco on the internet and I quite liked it. So I thought, I´d share it: Mission Bicycle Company

Beatifully designed website, witty content and great bikes. But hte best part is their newly launched "most beautiful, most realistic, most freakin' awesome bike builder in the known multiverse". Try it, it´s brilliant and soooo fun, they offer so much ways to build exactly the one bike you want.

Here is my creation:

And now i want to ride my bicycle! 

Mad Max: Emoji Road

Great, stupid, creative "Fuck You"

I like to think of myself as a creative person. Atleast sometimes. When I actually am creative. And write something, or draw something, or take a good photo. And I´m content with it. Then I´m happy. I may not take much skill to achieve this level of creativity and productivity I have reached. But sometimes I´m proud of myself and my work.
I´m sure alot of you people and people in general can relate to this. Creating something useful or nice just feels awesome. You feel superior, like a good person, like an important part of the universe, like the god of your own world. Be it just for that one stupid moment every month or so, but it surely is one of the greatest feelings.
So, there are we. Sometimes creative and happy about it.
The there are the super-creative ones. Artists. People that can live from their creativity, from their works.

And then there are peolple, who create stuff like this.

The never-ending cycle of life (or water)

The key to stupidity

And the "I have no words for this"

I mean, what is this?! There is absolutly no use for these things. In no way could they ever be even close to useful for anything. Why does someone even take the time thinking about designing objects in that way?! 

But the real question is: Why is ii so damn hilarious? These are soem of the funniest designs I have ever seen. How come I can´t think of of something that simple, but ,at the same time, so funny?

I lightens up my mind seeing that there are people actually creating these dumb things. Because it tells me something about these goddamn geniuses: They give no fucks at all. They just think about such things, imagine it to piss people off and do it. For the sole reason to piss people off. How great is that? Extremly great. I like it.

If you like it, too, go and check out similar designs over here:

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/perfect-terrible-redesigns/#slide-id-642413

Silver Linings

I recently watched "Silver Linings Playbook", a movie directed by David O. Russel, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as main actors. 

And, I have to admit, I really realy liked it.

I had almost no knowledge about the film. I knew the main actors (Cooper, Lawrence and DeNiro), I knew that the project recieved good reviews and even an Oscar for Best Main Actress for Jennifer Lawrence. But that was it. 

Therefore I had no expectations. Wich, by the way, has often lead me to experience a movie in a better way, not knowing about characters or story and then being surprised in a positive way. Same here. This movie turned out to be pretty different from what you are used to. And it also turned out well, which is important, because not everything that is different is good. Silver Linings Playbook surely is.

Pat

Tiffany

The film tells the story of mentally ill Pat Solitano (Cooper), who tries to get back into his old life, as he just returned from therapy. Pat moves into his parents house. There the difficult relationship to his father, Pat Senior (Robert DeNiro with a brilliant performance) gets clear. Pat wants to win back his wife Nikki, who cheated on him and with that caused his illness to break out. Because Pat is not allowed to speak to her, he gives a friend of hers, the equally ill Tiffany (Lawrence), a letter for Nikki. Tiffany agrees to convey the letter, but only if Pat becomes her dancepartner for a contest. Pat agrees, and so he and Tiffany go onto their training. This takes a lot of his time, which results in more trouble with the family. Pat Senior has no income, and blames his son for his failure. It all comes down to a bet between Pat Senior and a mutual friend, with Pat Senior betting all of his fortune. The bet is: the local football team has to win a certain match and Tiffany and Pat have to score atleast 5 points at the dance contest. Of course they manage to barely get the points, winning the bet in favour of Pat´s family. And of course Pat and Tiffany get to express their love for each other in a dramatic finish.

Pat Senior

So, in the end, this is just another love story. All things find their Happy End, and everythings fine. What makes this film different are the characters. They are all broke in some way, everyone has problems. But this gets translated so well by the actors, that it is a pleasure to watch and experience the story from the beginning to the end. I really enjoyed my time with Silver Linigs Playbook, and I highly recommend watching it.

Do not destroy the earth

Everyday on my way to school (I go by bike) I pass a wall with some graffiti on it. There´s nothing special about this wall or the graffiti. Almost. Someone wrote a short sentence on there. He, or she, just used black colour. No background except for the grey wall. NO colours whatsoever used except for the black letters. I read this sentence, this very simple, yet so intense sentence almost every day. It is a german sentence. It says:

"Macht die Erde nicht kaputt!"

Translated into English, this means: " Do not destroy the earth!"

Reading this sentence saddens me everytime. We are not only destroying the earth, our planet, the only habitable planet known so far, by overusing ressources and living our lifes in a way that is not sustainable. No. We also do almost nothing to stop this. 
Sure, there are some funds and political parties out there trying to prevent the earth´s death, like Greenpeace. They certainly are doing a great and noticeable job, but that´s not enough. 
Because the real impact has to come from us. Us normal people. Us people living our everyday lifes, driving past graffiti showing us the flaws of the world and society we live in, and not doing shit to make anything happen. We only complain about life on earth going down the drain. We worry about poor people in Africa, their problems with AIDS, Ebola and having no water. We worry about smog in China. About huge amounts of plastic in the oceans. About air pollution.
We think worrying is enough. As if it attention would help, if nobody does something. Noticing a drawback, and doing something against it are two completly different things. Sure, attention helps and is definitely needed, but we can´t stop there. 
And this is not a complain about all the inactive people out there. This also goes to me. I´m not doing shit either. Not enough. And I hate it. 

Macht die Erde nicht kaputt.

Do not destroy the earth.

Art.