Windmill in Berlin-Marzahn

Windmill in Berlin-Marzahn. Photo: Ulla Hennig

Marzahn was once a small village, founded in the 14th century. In 1920 it became a part of “Groß-Berlin” (Great Berlin). 1945, after WW II it belonged to the Soviet zone. In the 60s Marzahn was known for its modern housing – many young people moved there out of the old and uncomfortable houses in the Eastern inner city.

The windmill is a “left-over” from the village. In 1815 the first windmill was built. Today it is still working, though not all the time. It is working about 200 days a year driven by the wind.

I participated in a guided tour through the mill. We all usually eat some kind of bread every day – and this guided tour reminded me of how grinding the process of making bread was – from harvesting the corn to cleaning it,  milling it and then baking the bread.

It made me think that in those times people probably appreciated the daily bread more than we do today…

Writing and Learning

In my last blog post I wrote about what journaling teaches me about me. In this blog post I am going to focus on an other aspect of learning.

Since some time I have been writing Squidoo lenses. “Squidoo lenses” are webpages which focus on one subject – they can be compared with articles for a magazine or a newspaper. The main thing here is to provide facts, and you should try to provide them in a way which makes your readership want to read your lens.

While creating thoses lenses I learn a lot.

• I learn the facts. When you want to write a lens about Mozart’s operas you have to know them – the date they were composed, the plot. I must admit I did not know the plot of the “Magic Flute” up to the day I wanted to write about it. I only knew that the music in it was wonderful. Which information do I get at Wikipedia in English? Are there facts which are important but only given in the German edition of Wikipedia?
• I learn how to get audiovisual material about my subject. Are there any videos on Youtube? Is there any other media material at Wikimedia Commons? One of my last lenses is about a Western trilogy by the famous American Director Howard Hawks. I decided to write about that without knowing that there was only one bad video covering the last film of the trilogy. Wah!
• I learn to “break down” my material to my supposed readership. What are the essentials? Which facts cannot be left out, which can be neglected? Which videos are the best? How do I structure my lens? Which titles and subtitles are best to catch my readers’ attention?
• I learn that I should better write the introduction when everything else is already written (I vaguely remember that we were taught this at university regarding writing a thesis!).

The learning process is still going on, and writing a new lens is always a new learning adventure. And I deeply enjoy it!

The Day the Heating went out

Such things always happen at the weekend. I awoke at 6.30 am because of a funny rippling noise. No, there was no fountain in my room. The noise came out of the heating, and as I noticed a few seconds later, the heating was cold.

Arggh! I tried the heating in the other rooms: one was hot, one was cold. I definitely had a problem. On the other hand I had to leave at 9 am. I phoned the caretaker and only reached his mailbox. I went downstairs and wrote down the phone number of the people who could be reached in times of emergency. Ten minutes later I learned that they could not do anything without the keys to the  cellar. So I tried again to get the caretaker. This time I managed to talk to him and told him my story.

In the meantime it was 9.20 am. I dialled the number of the person I was to meet at 10 am and told him I would come later.

In the evening (the heating was still only partially working) I sat down and did my journalling. When I wrote down what had happenend in the morning and how I had reacted to it and how stressful it had been to me I asked myself: Why? Because, so I found out in the process of writing, I feel very uneasy when I plan how to spend a day and then something happens which forces me to change my plans. Instead of seeing it as a challenge and act in a proactive manner I feel threatenend by the unplanned change.

So, by writing in my daily journal I learned quite a lot about myself. Thanks, journal!

This is a contribution to a group writing project at Joyful Jubilant Learning: How do you Write to Learn?

The Renaissance Garden

Renaissance Garden in Berlin-Marzahn. Photo: Ulla Hennig

Today has been the first day for a week with sunshine. Well, the sky got cloudy again after lunch, and when I got home from work it looked dreary again. But at least it stayed dry.

On days like these I like to browse through my flickr account. That photo was taken in the middle of September on a sunny day with a blue sky. It shows one part of the Renaissance Garden in Berlin which is a part of a wonderful big park called “The Gardens of the World”.

Enjoy!

A Greeting Card and Precious Memories

Winter in Berlin by ullahennig

This greeting card is very precious to me. No, it is not because it is the first one I made and I am offering at Zazzle. I am a bit proud of that, but it is not the reason why it is precious to me.

The original photo was shot by my husband in January 2005. He was a teacher then, and while I was working at the Berlin University of the Arts, he enjoyed one week off school and travelled through snowy Berlin. He had taken a liking to our digital camera, and that picture of a small cosy restaurant somewhere near Lake Wannsee belonged to the photos he brought home.

Now, after his death in 2007, I have got his photos. And I decided to put his photo on a greeting card. So there is a part of him now on the web. I have ordered two of them already (I wanted to check the quality – it is good), and I will send it to friends who used to know him.

If he would be able to see it (maybe he is?) he would smile and be happy. I hope so.

Work

Working in the garden in the last balmy days of autumn. Photo: susie

The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.

(Richard Bach, * 1936 in Oak Park, Illinois)

I have been thinking a bit about work the last days. Or to say it in another way – about play and work, or fun and work.

For a long time work was considered as something you had to do, was painful, strange to you, had nothing to do with you. The men and women who went to work in the mines or the textile mills went there because they needed the money. I think that it can be said that they didn’t like their work – it just had to be done.

Things have changed. I have a job which I like – it includes a lot of creative activities like photo-processing, tutoring other people, doing some scripting. Often I only notice that the work was hard when the work is done and I feel a bit exhausted.

And I come home and continue with that kind of “work” – photo-processing, writing, tutoring. I do it for myself, yes, and mostly I am not paid for it, at least not with money. Is it work then? Or is it fun?

Somehow it seems to me that the sharp division between work and life which we had throughout the 19th and most of the 20th century is not working anymore. Or is it only me, a privileged individual?

I would very much like to hear your opininion on that – please take the time and join the discussion!

Can you Write Following a Plan?

From now on till the end of December I will carry on an experiment.

Since May 2009 I am a member at Squidoo. I’ve successfully graduated at RocketMoms (writing one lens a week for eight weeks). Instead of taking a break after that adventure I have thrown myself into the next one: I am going for Giant Squid.

What are Giant Squids? Giant Squids are people which have 50 lenses and more. So my aim are 50 Squidoo lenses at the end of the year. Just now I am at # 19. Well.

So I sat down yesterday, picked up my calendar and wrote down a lens-writing-plan. It is a rather strict one: two days for one lens in the week, and two lenses from Friday to Sunday.

Do I feel pressure? It’s funny or even strange, but I don’t. I look forward to each day on my calendar because I know I will write. I don’t mind the grey days and the early darkness of November and December – because I know I will write.

By the way: I just published a new lens about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In case you want to throw a glance at it, here it is:

http://www.squidoo.com/wolfgang-a-mozart
Enjoy!

Do you write following a plan? What’s your opinion on that?

About me

Screenshot of Squidoo Lens

I know I should rewrite my “About me” page. But I want to offer you something different if you are interested in knowing more about me: Some weeks ago I wrote a Squidoo lens about my top ten favorite activities, and I think that special lens will tell you a lot about me. Maybe the way I wrote it may be a bit strange to you – writing a squidoo lens is a bit like writing a magazine article (and provide the graphics and photos!).

It would be awfully kind of you if you came back from the lens again to this place here and tell me what you think about the lens!

Joyful Jubilant Learning celebrates its 3rd birthday

I must admit: When I visited Joyful Jubilant Learning for the first time, I had my difficulties with the name. Learning – yes. Joyful – yes. But jubilant? I associated “jubilant” with a choir singing Handel’s “Halleluja”, not with learning. “They are exaggerating a bit, those Americans” I thought (would you please forgive me, my U.S. friends?).

One year and some months later I have changed my mind. I had to meet some learning challenges during the last weeks. I had to do tasks at work which for quite a while a colleague of mine used to do: to produce animated banners with photoshop and imageready and to do some programming.

I am not the one who shouts “New things, here I come!” I like to do the things I am good in. I am afraid of new tasks. But, you know, there was no way of avoiding them. They had to be done. So I learned how to do them. I succeeded in doing them. And when the work was done, I permitted myself to let out a shout “Yea, I did it!” I was jubilant. It felt so good to have learned to do new things.

There are hundreds of articles which discuss the necessity of life long learning for all of us. They appeal to our logical reasoning. But life long learning has also to do with feeling – the feeling of joy and jubilance!

Leaves in All Colors

Here in Berlin October has been a rather dreary month up to now.  There has not been much of a “Golden October”. In the years before we had a symphony of red, yellow, green. This year September was just great – and then with the beginning of October weather changed to almost wintertime.

But there is flickr, flickr with its treasure of photos. I picked out this one because it reflects what I see in my mind when I think of October.

So everyone of you who is experiencing dreary weather with grey sky: have a look at this photo and dream yourself away!

leaves in autumn. Photo: Ctd 2005