Book review: The Hunger Games

Why do I have time for this? Im supposed to do haematology for exams!! anyways, I wrote most of this in an email correspondence to a friend so ill just copy, paste and edit a bit:
The Hunger Games:
...a bit too sappy to be a good dystopian novel, but then again i think the author is trying to appeal to all those twilight lovers...anyways apart from the entire last half where katniss is too stupid (blind/not versed in these things) to realise how much that boy loves her, and to what extend she has feelings for him as well, its all right...

MY FRIEND: i know what you mean, katniss's character really pissed me off cos she was so annoying. and yeah i think its quite twilight like with the peeta/gale thing.

I must admit, i was very very bored and did end up reading the first of the twilight books like 2 years ago - and bella just really really pissed me off - mixture between dumb blonde and immature little girl that cannot think. It just kept going in circles! I love him, he loves me, we can't be together, I love him, he loves me, we can't be together... for f*** 400 pages?!? too much for me...

Katniss is fine - at least there is a sense of honor and a braveness and some sort of intelligence to her - apart from when it comes to boys. just sometimes there are some glitches in her character - the way she doesn't get the honor thing on the roof with peeta before the games, the way she doesn't get the love thing - like ever, the way she sometimes reacts quite cold hearted even though we all know she is super protective. That doesn't fit. It almost feels a bit like the author stole some personality traits of bella (in the love sense) and stuck them into katniss. Whats worse, the circles seem to be starting as well. Perhaps the author realized that this sells well (see twilight) and decided to add some in too? It probably works the trick on the wider audience, but I still think its incoherent with the rest of her character.

Another point: the dystopian world with its problems is only created as a backdrop, and not (as a good dystopian novel should) in order to draw parallels to the world we live in and criticize society. It feels like a bit of a genre mix: not really dystopian, not really an adventure novel, nor a romantic one. That means it feels a bit mindless - action, fear, love, that sells well, but it would have been better with a bit more essence. You can tell its written to appeal to a wide audience, motivation of money as my english teacher used to put it...

Despite my ranting, its well written, "kurzweilig" and a nice read - with the potential of more, but that was sadly not exploited.

Beatsteaks, but slightly late timing

Last year I went to a concert by the Beatsteaks, A german rock band who played a gig in KOKO, london. It was one of the best nights ever!!! I finally found the song that gave me goosebumps: Imagine in a crowd of happy people, amongst the first few rows, in an old, converted theatre and then just amazing live music that manages to lift your mood and make people want to dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIz-oRLDVUM
and for completeness sake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QiNNmRsICg&feature=related
hihihihi. it was epic

my screen background :D

It was so special seeing you. I wish we had more time together

IVDC, dancing, aldo and slavik

Another dance season has ended in the culmination of IVDC, inter-varsity dance competition. The biggest student ballroom dance competition, held annually in Blackpool, in the famous winter gardens ballroom.
the last season was a rollercoster. I could fill a book (or a soap). it started with an annoying endless day of team trials, where Jürgen was over for the weekend, and I really did not have the patience. I met my dance partner, aldo, did a bit of cha, was pissed off with the entire day, realized he'd be rather a pain and that he has quite an ego (which didn't make things better) and got the hell out of there as soon as I could.
first weeks of getting used to each other was hell. he was a dick (and I probably a b*** in response) to the point where our teacher elena gave him a run down on how things work, and he got his act together a bit.
The first comp: two weeks of practice, and somehow we won?! we actually were friends for once...
dance practice and rolling my eyes at aldo took over my life. 4x, 5x, 6x a week even, I found myself in the JCR (Junior Common Room - my second home in london). We won the second competition - and aldo actually started being nice to be.
There was one dispute we had - aldo saying something like, "I just want to be loved" me saying "how do you expect people to love you if you're behaving like a dick?" ... "hmm yea, I guess you're right there"... maybe that was a turning point.
we are friends now - I know more about him than his girlfriend, he doesn't know that much about me - he's not the kind of guy to trust...
SUDC - southern uni championships - we won
in between, watching the UK open, such an inspiration! Watching ballroom dancer with my course mate and fellow dancer Pavel, a documentary of slavik and his ex partner anna melnikova, two world class dancers. I copied in the link to the trailer below.
and finally IVDC, - we won. somehow. clear plate. I am amazed.
The picture shows us before a round.

Its over now, Aldo is out of the country for a month, so no dancing. I compensate by what I am supposed to do: studying, and eating and putting on all that weight I have lost the past few months :(

At last: a treat for the eyes (pretty people and amazing dancing), a story as only life writes it, and the soap like ups and downs in ballroom dancing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnHYJhXXJS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwc6c_UJu_U&feature=related