musings of a neurotic mind

green day’s new album is out for a few weeks now but i’ve never seem to get hold of the video - until now. i have been a fan of green day since their 1994 album “Dookie”. the first single “American Idiot” has some contemporary relevance, especially now after the outcome of the US elections:

Don’t want to be an American Idiot
Don’t want a nation under the new media
Can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America

Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alienation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones meant to follow
For that’s enough to argue

Maybe I’m the faggot America
I’m not a part of a redneck agenda
Now everybody do the propaganda
And sing along at the edge of paranoia
(Green Day - American Idiot)

here are two screencaptures from the musicvideo:

well, it is done. i managed to write the conclusion of my thesis today. this is generally the very last part of any paper i write and where i summarize the main points and stuff. thus i want to share with you what i concluded, well, at least a part of it. (sorry, german only!)

Die Lacansche Psychoanalyse ist mehr als nur eine therapeutische Praxis und stellt eine wichtige Methode zur Analyse von aktuellen Phänomenen der Populärkultur und Gesellschaft zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts dar, die leider im deutschsprachigen Raum noch nicht die Akzeptanz und Verbreitung gefunden hat, wie es im anglo-amerikanischen Bereich der Fall ist. Die Konzepte und Theorien von Lacan und ihre Weiterentwickung durch Žižek stellen eine Möglichkeit dar, um zu verstehen, welche Phantasien dystopische Science Fiction Filme oder ein apokalyptisches Cyberpunk Online-Rollenspiel bieten und welche jouissance RezipientInnen dadurch erfahren.

like every friday i drove to McDonald’s for lunch at appr. 4pm. (yes, that’s usually the time i have “lunch”.) the traffic was heavy and suddenly i was wondering why so many people are still driving their cars despite the high gas prices. it is a trivial observation but i guess having a car and being able to drive it is essential in our society. well, i can’t picture myself without my car. it is not only convenient, but it also means freedom: i can go wherever and whenever i please. you cannot do that with public means of transport. i love my car, yeah, i really do.
i have been thinking about my life recently. what i want to do (but cannot), what i do not want to do (but have to) and the all-time favorite question: why? i tend to overanalyse decisions and developments. i feel i should finally adopt the attitude “no regrets”.

something i wanted to post for a while now but never got around doing it: the french health service is promoting free flu shots for people older than 65 as a preventive measure and they produced two television commercials that i find quite amusing. “profitez de la vie, évitez la grippe”, is their slogan and you should really check out the two available commercials. it is interesting how serious medical issues can be presented in a catchy (ok, maybe trivial) and even entertaining way. i bet people remember those commercials easily once they have seen them… however, i have never seen a commercial for flu shots on German or Austrian television… i think cultural differences like that are intriguing, especially since the culture in question is right here in continental Europe…

talking about the weather is in fact trivial. i like it when it is sunny and hot, actually temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) are perfectly fine with me. but when it comes to cold weather i get uncomfortable really soon. as a result i do not like fall and winter, especially not when it is snowing and freezing cold outside. this year winter seems to come around quite early because it snowed yesterday! luckily the snow melted the instant it fell. right now it is raining and the temperature is 3.7 degrees Celsius (38.66 degrees Fahrenheit).
well, at least there is absolutely no reason to head outside. so i have plenty of time to give my thesis an appropriate layout and compile the acknowledgements and bibliography.

this past weekend was the first one in weeks where i actually did not work but tried to have a “good” time. it still amazes me how easily i get bored when i do not have something to do. as a result i intended to clean up my harddisk drives which are by now crammed with recordings of various programmes (mostly french news and music videos) i captured with my satellite card in the past few weeks.
today it is back to work, the conclusion of my thesis still needs to be written…

reality television takes another leap ahead. i have been quite ignorant when it comes to this emerging genre but now it caught my attention. why do people watch ten celebrities camping in the jungle diving into tanks full of worms, spiders and other unpleasant animals? the second season of the German version of “i am a celebrity, get me out of here” is in full swing… and takes socially acceptable voyeurism yet again to a new level. this show is so sick…

finally i customized the default wordpress template. (thanks to tobyx for his valuable help with CSS.) things are still a little bit rough and unfinished; the comment section is still under construction. so please bear with me…

done! my presentation went well and i guess it was well received too. i am definitely not used to giving presentations anymore… it was weird, i was nervous, but i think it was ok. this was basically a full dress rehearsal for the final exam in january. i am more confident now that i will argue and “defend” my thesis well…

now that the re-editing of my thesis is almost done, i find some joy in coding CSS and xhtml again. consequently, i am about to revamp my website because i have canceled my second domain. i figured i do not need it and i can easily place the content under my primary domain. i am not happy with the standard wordpress template and some customization is overdue. i am pretty certain to find some time to do that now in november… so be prepared to find something fresh and new at this place…