On the wall outside his former residence – flat number 27B – where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.

> George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house

I’ve been wearing glasses for about two years now. Fortunately, I only need them when I work on the computer the whole day or for driving. So it’s not like I’m completely blind without them. The problem is when I don’t wear them I get headaches after a while because my eyesight is different on each eye. I don’t really like wearing glasses the whole day, but I don’t like the thought of sticking tiny plastic things on to my eyes either.

Anyway, a few days ago I decided to give it a try and swapped my glasses for contact lenses. I’m still writing these words in tears and it still feels very uncomfortable, but everyone says you’ll get used to it. We’ll see. At least putting in the lenses took only 5 minutes today as opposed to half an hour two days ago. I’ll keep you posted…

Brilliant viral ad for the Danish brand Quiksilver. Don’t try this at home or at a lake/river near you.

Before you ask, this has nothing to with the TV show “Lost”. Gukanjima is an island 15 km from Nagasaki, Japan. From 1887 to 1974 is was used as a coal mining facility. Although only 1km in diameter it was densely populated with over 5300 people! It’s completely deserted now and entrance is prohibited. Check out the photos here. It really looks like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. There’s also some information here and on Wikipedia. Veeery creepy – no wonder it’s also called “The Ghost Island”.

Last weekend I decided to visit my brother in Berlin. He’s been living there for about a year now and seems to know Berlin better than his hometown Stuttgart. It’s been more than 15 years since my last visit to the capital, so many things had changed, as you can imagine. We walked around the city for two days and managed to see and learn a lot, thanks to my excellent tour guide. Especially the architecture in Berlin is very impressive. You can find so many styles from different times and also cultural backgrounds.

I also caught up with two friends I made in New Zealand. All in all, it was a great weekend and I’m really looking forward to New Year’s Eve in Berlin.

If you want to see more of Berlin check out my photos on flickr.

Russel Davies writes about how to be more interesting:

The way to be interesting is to be interested. You´ve got to find what´s interesting in everything, you´ve got to be good at noticing things, you´ve got to be good at listening. If you find people (and things) interesting, they´ll find you interesting.

Interesting people are good at sharing. You can´t be interested in someone who won´t tell you anything. Being good at sharing is not the same as talking and talking and talking. It means you share your ideas, you let people play with them and you´re good at talking about them without having to talk about yourself.

He further lists 10 things you can do to be more interesting. I’ll definitely will try to take some on board:

1. Take at least one picture everyday. Post it to flickr.
That won’t be too difficult, although the pictures taken with my phonecam are not that great. We’ll see.

2. Start a blog. Write at least one sentence every week.
I’ve got a blog…sort of. One sentence a week, that won’t be easy. I guess I have to overcome my blogging-lazyness.

3. Keep a scrapbook
Does my PDA count as a scrapbook? Guess not. I think I’m way too digital for that.

4. Every week, read a magazine you´ve never read before
Again, can we replace “magazine” with “blog” please? But I agree, if you find yourself waiting at the doctor, next time pick up a magazine you’ve never read before. This can be really interesting.

5. Once a month interview someone for 20 minutes, work out how to make them interesting. Podcast it.
Ok, let’s skip that one.

6. Collect something
Interesting, but you have to be careful with that as Russel says: “Learn how to communicate that to other people without scaring them off.”

7. Once a week sit in a coffee-shop or cafe for an hour and listen to other people´s conversations. Take notes. Blog about it. (Carefully)
Problem: Not enough good coffee-shops and flat-whites here in Germany.

8. Every month write 50 words about one piece of visual art, one piece of writing, one piece of music and one piece of film or TV. Do other art forms if you can. Blog about it
That shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll try.

9. Make something
With my hands? Sorry, but I’m too clumsy for that…

10. Read:

Understanding Comics – Scott McCloud
The Mezzanine – Nicholson Baker
The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information – Edward Tufte

All these books are good for their own reasons but they´re also good examples of people who are really interested in stuff that others think of as banal and who explain it in a way that makes you share their passion. That’s good.

They sound quite interesting. I’ll add them to my list. Personally, I always try to read one novel and one business/work related book. So depending on my mood and energy I can always choose between something entertaining or the “heavy stuff”.