elkit in wonderland

Flavors of the Month be gone

Alright then. These are the flavors of two months, really, because I didn't close them out end of April. (Since I knew I'd be offline most of May.)
Flavors-be-gone, and I'll start a new list tomorrow.
    PetitiofoMiddlEasPeace
    colectivo 2: routines
    DigitalConsumer Bill of Rights
    How To Heal Depression
    iPod
    Jeanette Winterson
    Jeanette Winterson reader
    La Cabane Perce
    Lake Starnberg
    Mirror Project
    Peter Lewis on Technology
    Photos of Munich
    The Carter Center
    TV Turn Off Week

Music with Taste

The First Viennese Vegetable Orchestra. Play a song, and eat your instruments. How fun! [via Schockwellenreiter.]

You Look Mahvelous

I love opening girlrepair and seeing that big, beautiful, bright slice of orange sit across the entire page. It's like getting a free drink each time.

Bilinguals Have Split Personalities

Yeah, I know I do. Alright, I'm kidding. But there is something to that, and it really is right along the lines that Cindy describes in her Bilingual Families Pages. (I took the headline from the "Myths" page, where she says:)
"Some bilinguals do report feeling that they have a different "personality" for each language. However, this may be because they are acting according to different cultural norms when speaking each of their languages. When speaking English, they assume the cultural role expected of them in English-speaking society. This is different than the cultural role expected of them in German-speaking society, which they assume when speaking German. The change in language cues a change in cultural expectations."

That's certainly true for me, oscillating between my American and my German self.
Cindy's pages are geared towards families, specifically raising children with two languages, but I still found more than enough food for thought for myself. No, I wasn't raised bilingual. I grew up in a German, German-speaking family, learned English and French in school like most German kids, and moved to the United States when I was 29. That's when I became truly bilingual, in my own understanding, and I can tell you exactly when it happened: the morning I realized I had dreamt in English. Even though the dream had been about my German hometown, and German acquaintances. But I disctinctly remember the conversation having been in English.
Funny, innit?

We Too Disappear

And yet another fascinating entry in blogland: Steve Himmer quotes about absence, about seeing and being seen, in his OnePotMeal.

Me, I've always been an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of person. I literally and truly forget about the things (and the people) that are not in my sight. And if I do think of them, mostly it's not with a feeling of pain - I simply note that I'm here, and they're there, outside of my realm of existence and experience, and nothing to do with me, and that's that.
It's cold, it's always been cold, and always will be. It's hot, it's always been like that, and will never end. I feel great, and will live happily ever after. I'm in pain, and will remain in purgatory forever.
Reminds me of John Crowley's "Engine Summer". Or maybe I was a cat in a former life.

What Goes Up, Must Come Down

Becky from mybluehouse finds the best websites.
Today she has collected treasures about M. C. Escher.

Who's Blogging in Your Neighborhood?

This is entirely too cool: a map of blogs and bloggers in New York City. (Found it at Anil's place.) I'm envious. Makes me want to live there, so I can be on the map too.

Reality - What a Concept!

"And you thought Ozzy Osbourne was a handful.

Anna Nicole Smith, the voluptuous former Playmate turned oil-tycoon widow, has signed on with E! Networks to star in her own weekly half-hour reality series, set to debut in August."

That's what E!Online reports. I couldn't help but think that Anna Nicole's life is not exactly what I think of when I consider reality.

Adequate Seriousness

Quite a few bloggers are talking about AKMA's recent entries on forgiveness, and quite rightly so, so I'm going to join in. I want to read them again, to understand them more deeply, to let them sink in better, so please excuse me while I go back ...
"Forgiving" certainly doesn't entail forgetting, or discounting; it may be the only way to take an offense with adequate seriousness. Forgiving entails recognizing a wrong, looking at it clearly and honestly, assessing responsibility for it, and resolving not to permit that wrong to determine our lives from thence forward.
Read for yourself. It's so well worth it.

Please to enjoy the herring, mother

But before I go: make sure you check out this excellent summary of the Cannes Film Festival.