harlekins spirit

How to ruin Christmas Eve

Christmas at last. Every year at the same time, 12 whole months to prepare for the next attempt and reflect on the last one, yet the same things happen each year. Let’s look at it from a different perspective today. Let’s approach it from an IT professional‘s point of view….

Drugs party

According to a status report on drugs 2021 (national REITOX (Réseau Européen d’Information sur les Drogues et les Toxicomanies) node to EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction), in 2018, 8.3% of 12-64 year-olds had used drugs (especially cannabis) within the previous 12 months, of those more men than women. Bavaria in particular is well above the average, especially noticeable among 14-17 year olds.

Learn to love silence

After I had recently done a one-minute (!) focussing exercise at the beginning of a retrospective, one participant remarked that he could never get used to these “esoteric” exercises. We then had a minor altercation about silence and how difficult many people find it to endure silence. Loving silence has nothing to do with the esoteric.

In my role as a facilitator, I have become a friend of silence. And my route there was not easy. I like to talk and passionately, when I do. I am sometimes impulsive and too quick for others. Through experience I have learned to keep quiet and to listen very carefully, especially when someone else is speaking. If you were to ask some of my colleagues how much progress I have made, they will probably say she is still practising. That’s how I see it too, it’s an ongoing exercise to become quiet and stay quiet. I am happy about every step I take towards stillness away from the deluge of noise.

A lifelong companion

The 70s cast long shadows

My colleague PUE has written about lifelong learning at Harlekin.blog from time to time – I will now follow suit and comment on “lifelong furniture”. It’s about the magnificent exhibit pictured above, which was brought back from the attic to the light of day.

In the first Corona summer (how that sounds…) a major renovation campaign took place at our house with all kinds of measures to make our 60s terraced house fit for the future. Corona rules made some preparations necessary. Routes were marked in the house, etc., in order to allow the 3 – 6 builders who were working in and around the house at the same time and ourselves to take coffee breaks “at a distance” – including pleasant chats over coffee, of course.

Can Botox save the car?

Where did the good cars go?

Car design has always been emotive. There are fashions just as there are for clothes. Hollywood glamour influenced lines in the 30s,…

The Reading

This post is by our guest author Susanne Bröer. Susanne lives in Berlin, is a graduate in business management, has been passionately sewing quilts for 30 years and writes short stories, so-called five-liners.

Thursday, 8 pm! There aren’t many people sitting in the auditorium, maybe a dozen – mostly of the older generation, literature lovers, so to speak. Some are armed with writing material to take notes, others wait in curiosity for the literary spectacle that is about to follow. A woman enters the stage, dressed in black, accompanied by an almost ash-blond small boy, presumably her son. A large book with a red cloth cover lies open on the table in front of her.

A Ray of Hope

Some time ago we published various articles on digitisation and its sometimes grotesque excesses – e.g. Digital Na(t)ive or Digital Punk. I found myself at this point again when I was on my way to and back from my summer holiday. This time, however, I can report on positive examples – but you can only appreciate them if you have also experienced the disasters.

Why do I actually do this?

What keeps me sitting down and writing articles? What’s the point? I could play golf, take the dog out, cook or take a spin on my motorbike instead. I deliberately chose only activities that I enjoy for the comparison. Not things like cleaning windows, chasing clients on the phone or arguing with insurance companies. So why? Okay, there’s a bunch of nice people I’ve known for ages that it’s fun to “work”with. You also develop your personal writing style, your own way of expressing yourself, your precision and so on (we’re talking about the punchlines here, not the approach shots). Is that all? Hey – the alternatives are mentioned above and they are really good ones. So why? Probably it has been obvious to everyone except me. I can already hear the chorus of heartfelt compassion at the next Harlequin meeting.

Crime Scene Front Garden (Part 3)

Of child murderers and disturbers of the peace

There are also some kestrels breeding in my neighbourhood. Incidentally, they are not related to birds of prey, but to parrots. Once made aware of this peculiarity, one can see some parallels between the two species, e.g. in flight, motion on the ground and beak design. But that’s not what I wanted to write about. Kestrels, like tits, lay their eggs at intervals of a few days, so that some of the children will develop further than the stragglers. As a result, the older ones beg more loudly for food and are thus attended to more quickly and grow faster. And in years of shortages, such as this year 2022, only the older ones are then fed. The younger ones starve. This is a survival strategy of birds called cainism. This behaviour is also known in storks when there is a food shortage in their breeding area.

Crime Scene Front Garden (Part 2 after all)

Of swindlers, robbers and executioners

The stories told here are not for the faint-hearted. According to human moral standards, they are all about the rejection of all ethical behaviour and the deep abyss of social machinations. Things get really bad in the bird kingdom. So think twice: do you really want to read on? I warned you….