Note to myself: Just do it.

Recently i tried some stuff with ps to do something on a drawing chu bei did of me. i wanted to check how i would 'design' or play with an illustration and of course i wanted to fiddle a bit with the buttons of the adobe software. after a while i knew what i wanted to try, that was to seperate the drawn lines from the white of the sheet first, to paint then some colorful motivs on the background and put the drawing back on the sheet.

sounds easy and like a job of a few minutes.... since i was not able to do that (or because its too much work the way i would do it) i did a completely different thing with the goal: colors.

it took me then almost 2 hours and im still not satisfied with it, so i see it as not finished.

here it is

Afterwards i could interpret that i did this regarding the movie "Das weisse Band" - nothing in the light, story in the shadow... its late and i drift off.

however, once i was in the photostudio with a chinese friend, zhouhanlin, she already finished her study of photography and had to shoot something for her job. i was invited to join and i got to get the experience how it is to use the camera in a studio! i did some shots but didnt really have a plan so i talked a lot with the 'models' (our friends) and fired away here and then. i like the following picture the most from all shots.

中国朋友 - Chinese friends

I would like to make a short introduction to some friends a got to know recently or longer ago.. chu bei (paypay) & yue lin (angela), last week we spent some days together and it was really great, since chu bei is very into photography and also a real busy guy at the university and yue lin is a beautiful girl who likes to get photographed. we went to a little exhibition downtown, there were some pictures of of the girls angel & angela, shot by chu bei. some days later we have been to a lecture about analog & unmanipulated photography at Ningbo University which is quite far away from Wanli university, it was a taxi ride about 40 minutes. Of course we were late and the lecture already begun. it was all in chinese but i got a instant translation of the most important things from yue lin.

Angel, Yue Lin & Chu Bei

Kevin is a guy who studies chinese language. if i remember well this study includes historic chinese and new literacy - but im not sure now, maybe its bullshit - but he is studying english as well, for sure. his chinese name is he xiaping. He might be one of the best english speaking persons in Wanli even though here and then it gets confusing talking to him. we like to call him kevinem because he is into hiphop, rap and everything where pants are worn under the ass. of course also basketball.
A really nice guy who helped some of us out when we actually needed it and he has the heart at the right place.

We play tennis since i got to know maggy and her friend whose name i will always forget.

They invited us to play tennis again and again and as i remember the only activity we did together was playing tennis and having dinner once. Anyway they become good friends and they are nice to hang around with or to play tennis with.

However, they are all nice poeple and im looking forward to seeing them this evening at the dinner of Fredriks Birthday. And im glad i met you!

Maybe it is yet a nostalgic moment cause i see there is only a month in china left the future. and how the hell did that 4 months pass?

What is the difference between a big school and a big school?

Today I had a chat with Fredrik at a cup of coffee in the cafe where we usually go. We started talking about the difference in languages since there was entering a couple of japanese, a young lady, probably a student and an older man with shirt and intellectual appearance. Both seemed to be very balanced and well educated, something that might be special to see in China (at least for our conception of balance & education).
Unnecessary to say that chinese people „hate“ japanese, as they say, and the reason is easy and not to understand for a foreigner like me: „because of history, you know“. I dont know if the reason they name most of the time should just hide a kind of envy. To discuss about that is equal to enter in a never ending cycle.
I tried, I was misunderstood and at the end I was taught.
Anyway, the japanese couple beside our table began to discuss something and we were happy that we were able to distinguish chinese from japanese.
We as very beginner in learning the chinese language have a bit of a clue how this language works:
'daxue' means university and 'xue' just means school. If you put the caracter for 'big' (in chinese 'da') infront of 'xue' you get a 'big school', a university.
An other example could be shown from a question form. 'Bu' is the negation and it works like the following formula: verb + 'Bu' +verb. Translated it would sound like this 'do you see or you dont?', 'do you go or you dont?', 'do you like or you dont',....
As I know there is no word for 'without', you are supposed to by-pass it and replace it with a sentence where you use 'not have'. Or lets put it this way: dictionary says 'without' is same word as 'not have' but if you use it you actually say 'not have' in chinese. Confused?

The question came up.
Do you think the Chinese language can be as specific as English when it is about a certain subject for example in science?
I surely do not know but Im really curious about that, how accurate you can determinate and define the differences in things.

Our conclusion:
For now it seems like japanese are drawing with tiny brushes to make sure every stroke is in the right place and chinese is painted like a contemporary illustration done with one bucket and it says 'daxue'.

random news VS. whats going on?

what happened?
we went to a beach on the weekend, we got to know a really nice french man who inspired with some great pix to put some effort to fix my 50mm, i fixed my 50mm lens, i got the booklet/catalogue from the shooting , i got a book from zhouhanlin (kate)-the photographer girl- her final work on the university, we have a exam on thursday (tomorrow), further there will be a party in laowaitan on friday because some guys will leave china and go back to sweden or whatever.. sad to hear for those who stay.
my girl told me she managed to sell my guitar, im rich again.

that was written last wednesday if i remember well, and this time i'll throw on the blog, just to save the site from my laziness. maybe this kind of diary writing is going to be posted more often in the future..i like it.

more news since that is also: inter milan won the champions league, i got 80 points at the last exam (yes!), helene has a blog as well now, we bought finally tennis rackets, bayern lost the champions league, i got my first tie and nothing even more boring to tell.

in the next episode you learn how to burn a bridge after passing it without being a bastard, a pyromaniac or steven seagal!

The racket is broken after 2 days..