isegrim

If you comment on this entry I'll pick seven of your listed interests and you have to elaborate on them in your journal. Here is 's choice: 1. accents
Being interested in languages and linguistics, I'm also fascinated by the variety of accents and dialects (I should probably add 'dialects' to my interest-list as well...) out there. This goes for German as well as English, which are, so far, the only languages I know well enough to really appreciate their different varieties. I guess I could tell French French from Canadian French, but my ears aren't that fine-tuned to the language yet to really be able to distinguish between other, more similar accents... But I'm hoping to get into French again someday and change that :) Same thing goes for Swedish. Unlike some other Austrians I know, I really like listening to people from Germany. There might be some exceptions, but generally I enjoy listening to someone with a German German accent. Austria has cooler expressions, though ;) As for English, listening to someone with a British accent makes me weak in the knees (which is why I enjoy Gemma's voiceposts so much *g*). In spite of that, I still decided to sign up for American English language-lab at uni because I feel more at home there. I think every accent has a beauty of its own... or most of them, anyway ;) 2. climbing trees
Not much to say about that, I guess. I loved climbing trees when I was a kid and I still do now that I'm an adult older ;) My grandmother had a couple of trees in her garden, half of which had to be cut down eventually. My favorite tree, a weeping willow, is still there, but with some of the lower branches sawn off. I loved climbing that tree to the very top, where I could sit comfortably and enjoy the view. My grandmother kept telling me not to climb to the top and I kept ignoring her :P 3. mythology
I'm interested in myths, folk tales and all kinds of old and new stories in general. As far as mythologies are concerned, I think my favorite are the ancient greek tales, with the norse tales as a close second. I don't read as much as I would like to and am far from being an expert on either of them. I've been thinking about looking for audio-books because I feel that stories like these ought to be told by someone, not just read quietly ;) 4. taoism
I learned about Taoism through my former yoga and qi-gong teacher and even though I don't claim to be an expert on the topic, I think I get what it's all about. I haven't done much research about it, my knowledge about Taoism comes from what my teacher has told me and what I've read in the absolutely lovely book 'The Tao of Pooh', but I got the impression that the basic idea of taoism is a very simple one, and that once this has sunken in there isn't really any more research necessary. Taoism seems to be all about being here and now with a generally cheerful, positive attitude that stems from a realization of your own limits and what you can and can't change. I think it's about becoming aware of who you are really and what you're good at and living in harmony with that, instead of trying to become something you're not and making life harder. And it's based on the idea of yin and yang, which to me means coming to terms with that fact that everything in the world needs to have its counterpart, thus there can be no joy without pain. But these are all words, I think the essence of Taoism can't be captured with words (and I think it also says so in one of the old texts), but I think I know what it is. In any case, Taoism has given me a kind of inner peace that no other religious (back when I was still semi-religious) or philosophical worldview has managed to give me and its simpleness really clicked with me. (Gemma, if you have anything to add to this I'd gladly hear it.) 5. franz kafka
Franz Kafka's stories and novels are everything my twisted little mind enjoys: Weird, disturbing, nightmarish ;) We read The Transformation (in case you don't know, it's about a guy who wakes up one day to find himself tranformed into a beetle, without any explanation why, and is subsequently locked up, neglected and eventually killed by his family) in school and that was all I needed to turn me into a Kafka-phile. I always felt so sorry for his main-characters who end up in totally absurd, shitty situations with no way out and without even knowing how this could have happened in the first place, and I'm equally terrified and fascinated by his style. 6. howie day
Howie Day is a guy from Australia who makes beautiful music. Rather sad music, of course, because I am me and that's what I like ;) I used to have his latest album on my iPod but don't have it anymore, once I've downloaded it again I'm going to upload one or two songs so you know what I'm talking about. 7. writing
I like to write, and I don't mean poetry or fiction (though I wrote a handful of poems when I was a teenager... who didn't? ;) but just general Stuff That's In My Head. About two years ago I realized how therapeutic writing can be for me, because whenever I feel like things are a mess it helps to get my thoughts down on paper (or, rather, the computer screen). I actually don't enjoy writing on paper that much anymore when I feel this urge to write, because it's too slow and not flexible enough. Other than that, I have a few notebooks that I scribble in whenever I feel like it.