EDITED SIX WORD STORY

And after that they went for

SIX WORD STORY

And after that they went for coffee.

I can't settle

This article gets me.

money is no object

Around three months ago, I made a weekly reminder on my phone in the hope that I would be reminded to save my money. I was finished with whittling hundreds of DKK away on coffee, materialistic things like clothes and other things that I didn't need. This Monday, I've managed to spend almost 200 DKK in one day and today I will be going to the movies. My plan isn't working out so well.

I think I've started to be careless with my money ever since I started having more of it. It's a strange thing, but when I feel poor I end up rich. When I feel rich I end up poor. I don't really understand it. It doesn't feel like I have any control over the whole thing, even though I am the only person who is spending my own money. It comes down to this: I don't worry about my money if I know I have it. On the other hand, when I feel poor I skimp and save. A change in my attitude changes my finance in a matter of weeks.

Another reason for my carelessness with money is, I think, the fact that money can be stored in a card. That just makes money too abstract for me. I don't feel like I'm spending money while I swipe it – of course I know I'm spending, but giving away tangible notes and coins just has more gravity to it. Perhaps using 'real' money more will help my money habits.

Both these things have come about as I grow older. Like many things, money is something I've become more irresponsible with as responsibility becomes more important. I used to be so good at saving money when I was younger. I've become worse at it now, even though it's really important to save. My one consolation is that I'm not the most reckless person I know – I have so many friends that have spent all their money in the middle of the month on clothes. Compared to them I am cheap. And I hate feeling cheap. But I also hate feeling poor. I think I am in a constant battle between choosing between feeling cheap and poor. Throw in the general annoyance that money has to occupy my mind so much. After all, there are – there must be – more important things in life than money.

happiness

I feel like the luckiest person in the world. For a small stretch of time, I will have a cat. Her name is Zilga, she belongs to my mom's friend, and she is mine for three months. I've set up a cat corner in my room for her so that she has everything she needs. She has her own pillow on the windowsill too, so she can lounge in the sun like the queen she is, but she seems to prefer my bed. That suits me just fine. It's just wonderful to put some music on and do nothing with her. The pressure melts away and we can just relax together. I am convinced that cat fur must have something that repels stress. 

taste

THE GAP by Ira Glass from frohlocke on Vimeo.

I am speechless.

normal/abnormal

This post might mainly be because of definition number 3 of the word 'elevated'.

Recently I've noticed that I and people around me often are in awe of how the world functions. It can be simple things, like stumbling over a word like "conscious" and wondering why it's spelled like that. But sometimes, there are thoughts like "Why are teeth white" and "Why doesn't anyone use nose warmers in the winter" and "Why do we drink cow's udder juice". Everyone always says that no one is completely normal, but then how can we define what isn't normal? When you think long and hard about something enough, you'll soon realise that nothing in this world makes much sense. It's not logical. It's not normal.

The question is why the word exists and how we've found a use for it. I suppose what's 'normal' is what's expected. If you've seen something enough times your mind registers it as something that is supposed to happen, and calls that normal.

I think it's interesting how we can let ourselves be surprised by the world. The world is the only thing we've known all our life, and yet we can still find something 'abnormal' about it. At the end of the day, it's like we aren't used to the world at all. It's a very good thing that we can rediscover the world again and again. It makes us a little more like children, just a little more curious.

Drum kits and cameras

This is a quote from Nick Andopolis that I live by.

"You gotta find your reason for living. You gotta find your big, gigantic drum kit."

Basically meaning that you have to find your passion in life - cheesy as it sounds - and pursue it. Find what makes you come alive and do it. It's harder than it sounds because if you're anything like me, you get distracted. You feel the need to be on Facebook and Tumblr and go to parties. Those things are fine, but I think you need to set some time off for the "good" hobbies too, like reading books and being creative. These are things that help you grow. They crave a little more of your attention span but it's worth it, every time.

just a little snack

I would trade all the chocolate pudding cakes I could eat in my lifetime for the chance to have one in space.

we're behaving like teenagers

Once upon a time, there was no such thing as teenagers. The term simply did not exist. Instead there were children and adults, and the dividing line between the two was when school ended and employment began. Back then, people going through puberty had to identify themselves as one or the other. This meant that you took part in that specific group's interests and roles in society - as this was in the "children should be seen and not heard" age, the jump from child to adult must have been overwhelming.

thoughts on education

Most young people today - like me and those around me - struggle with choosing their next stop in the ladder of education. In fact, more often than not education doesn't feel like a ladder, but is instead a labyrinth with dead ends, zigzags and shortcuts. This is almost impossible to navigate without some sort of idea of where you want to end up and a good sense of direction. In my case, and in the cases of many of my friends, we have neither.

July in January

There is nothing I can do about winter. I can't change the fact that slush lines the streets and makes walking life-threatening. I can't make the snow go away and the days last longer.

However, I have found a way to cope. And that is by fooling myself into thinking that it is actually summer.

I've made a list of summery links with piles and piles of sunshine, pineapples and warmth. They cheer me up whenever I feel frosty.

• FunForLouis's India Adventure
• A tumblr where it's always summer
• A colourful photo set with summer fruits and people
• Tame Impala's Soundcloud

Have a nice (pretend) summer!

not nice information

Sometimes the internet offers uplifting, nice information. It's nice to flip open my laptop to the sight of cute cats, happy Youtubers and news that my favorite band is working on a new album. However, the internet isn't that different from anything else in this world in its inclusion of both good and terrible things.

Today I found this article on vice.com. It was impossible to just scroll past the headline "Is It Still OK to Like Alleged Child Molester Woody Allen?". I read the piece, then googled, and read another piece. In one hour, those two pieces crumpled the deep respect I've felt for Woody Allen for the last two years. He vehemently denies it, but Woody Allen is an alleged child molester and has allegedly taken advantage of two of his children. (Although technically they are only his ex-girlfriend's adopted children.) The first of the two is Dylan/Malone, who was only seven years old at the time. The second is Soon-Yi, who at 19 began an affair with Allen while he was still together with Soon-Yi's adoptive mother. Now Soon-Yi and Woody Allen are married.

The molestation of Malone hasn't been proved, but Woody Allen's relationship with Soon-Yi doesn't seem right. They are 35 years apart, Soon-Yi is financially completely dependent on him, and she has no other family except him since her mother and siblings have excluded her from the family after she got involved with Allen. To add to all this, Soon-Yi has a learning disability and an IQ below average. This is just what's circulating on the internet. Who knows how many other children Woody Allen has molested?
Everything in the case is a mess. There is the children's mother's Catholicism, the fact that Woody Allen admits long-term visits to the therapist, and the fact that all of the adoptive children come from deeply troubled backgrounds. The case has a lot of things that are similar to the plot in Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis - about a successful celebrity couple who struggle in creating a normal family for their children.

What frightens me even more is that the same crimes have been in the media before. Twenty-two years ago Dylan's story came out to the public. The scandal was swept off by Woody Allen and his lawyers, and today he is still respected enough to get a lifetime achievement award in Sunday's Golden Globe awards. It's sick.

Midnight in Paris doesn't become a worse movie because of Woody Allen's pedophilia. Still, I won't be watching it again anytime soon - at least before I learn to separate the art from the artist. 

dorks and misfits

Freaks and Geeks is like one of those at first glance repulsive sweaters in secondhand stores that turn out to be really comfortable and end up being your most loved item, even though you only wear them at home.

After seeing it mentioned on the internet I decided to try it out, and now I'm happily obsessed. The show seems to understand teenagers and their troubles - how it's hard to be yourself and at the same time fit in in a world of categories and cliques. Apart from that, it's charming, funny and I thoroughly enjoy every episode. In my opinion it might be the best and most honest teenage TV show out there.

Although I love the show, I'm holding back on watching too many episodes at a time. The reason is this: the show only aired for one season, which means that there are only 18 episodes. I try to savour them, but I know that once I'm finished I'll probably just watch it again, and again, and again.

the five-year journal

Starting this year, 2014, I am going to keep a five-year journal. Every day for the next five years, I will write down the answer to a short question. I will answer a question assigned to the date, and the year after that I will answer the same question. The book is an interesting way to record how I might or might not change over the next years. There are some questions that require a little thinking, like "What makes "you" you?". Others are easy, like "What are you reading right now?" 

I hope I get to answer all the questions, and someday look back at it when I'm older.

all things holy

Religion is a curious thing. It is also a powerful thing. Not many people understand it, and most of the people who understand are only pretending to. I think that is because it is manmade. You can investigate a tree, or a lake, and you can learn how it works. But looking into religion is like a maze, where every answer demands another question. It isn't based on anything but human nature. Religion governs human nature, draws the line between right and wrong, and tries to control it. Some people need religion to feel balanced and some can't stand hearing about God. But it is still relevant because it is an important part of our world, and learning about religion you learn a lot about humans. It is sort of like a mirror. But still religion is puzzling. And although we have went to the moon, invented penicillin, invented the internet, we are no closer to understanding religion or even becoming the perfect person the religions say we should be. It seems like a strange paradox that the hardest thing for us to understand is ourselves. I said that religion is sort of like a mirror. It is a mirror to human nature. By observing religion we can observe human nature reflected in it. We observe ourselves. However it is only a mirror - not the real thing. Just like we never really know how our own face looks like from the outside, we never really know what human nature is like. Or if there even is one. Maybe everything is just an illusion, maybe nothing really exists. And in theory, reality is just a product of the brain. Everything is happening inside your head. But that is just confusing to think about. And it's a completely different subject than religion.

Emmaüs

Sometimes I feel the need to feel thankful in my life. When this is the case, I list in my head the things I'm not - obese, handicapped and homeless. Growing up in Seoul and Tokyo, I would often pass homeless people on the streets. I particularly remember a legless man that pushed himself around using a board in Namdaemun. Whenever I saw someone homeless I would feel hopeless and sorry. I didn't even bother giving change, because I didn't believe it would help them. Even before I knew about mental illnesses I knew what they were. I could see them on the homeless people.

I've always thought that homeless = hopeless and that once they were on the streets, they would die there. The best we others could do was leave them alone. Now, I realize I was wrong. There is a way to help people who seem helpless. As the founder of Emmaüs UK says: "I was challenged by a very lucid, but angry homeless man who shot down every fundraising idea I had… Eventually I became so irritated I asked him what on earth he did want. And his answer was… I want somewhere I can work, where I feel I belong, and where I can recover my self-respect." Not many people seem to grasp that giving homeless people a job helps them more than one hundred night shelters. Our world is fixed up so that your job is a big part of your identity. That is why many unemployed people soon fall into depression, because loss of a job practically means loss of purpose.

Obviously it is not so simple. Many homeless people suffer from multiple mental illnesses, and are in many ways unable to find a job on their own. This is where Emmaüs enters. The charity organization was founded in 1971 by a French priest. Although driven by compassion, Emmaüs aimed to be practical and self-sufficient. The basic concept is this: Activate homeless people by creating simple jobs for them. When it was first established, Emmaüs collected and recycled and provided twenty homeless people with a purpose in life. Emmaüs UK was founded nineteen years later, and today the organization exists in 37 countries with 300 groups in total. The biggest, Emmaüs UK, actually gives eleven times more money back to the community than it receives. The returns are economic, social and environmental.

I think Emmaüs is on the right track of tackling homelessness. It's an idea that works, and I believe that many more people should support and know about it.

I am a little hipster

My tastes can be shareable things that I can talk to other people about. However the range of what I like is wide - some things I like are light years away from what most of my friends like.

My grandmother and mother are both very musical, and it was natural that I start playing the piano at a young age. I loved playing and practiced every day until I was about 11, and since then I've managed to not make any progress. At all. Strangely enough, it was about then that I really started appreciating the pieces my teachers had given me over the years. The hopeless melancholy of Kabalevsky, Stravinsky and the intense emotion of Satie and Chopin captured me. It wasn't like any music I'd heard before. For a long time I was embarrassed about listening to classical music, but at one point I decided not to care about that anymore. Most pop music today is built on classical music. And well, classical music is classic. Do yourselves a favor and listen to this or this

I am a little mainstream

I am not ashamed to say that I like many things that the vast majority are also loving. Some people take pride in having taste that they share with no one else, but I am apparently not one of those. Great things stay great regardless of how many people have heard about them. The Beatles are a good example. So is Harry Potter.

This bespectacled man is currently my favorite author, Instagrammer and Youtuber. What can I say. He writes amazing books (I know he is, although I've only read one by him). He reminds me vaguely of my favorite English teacher too. Both wear glasses, both are smart, both have a way of seeing something interesting and wonderful in everything. John Green - not to mention his equally bright brother Hank - seems to me like one of those people who has fought and lost many battles for his dreams. Yet he has somehow made it through and now he is experiencing all of his dreams at once. John Green is just like anyone else, with weaknesses and fears - except for the fact that he is everyone's idol.

Another thing that is surreally good: The Hunger Games trilogy. I remember devouring the books last year. They followed me everywhere I went, both physically and mentally. The films do not disappoint. I was haunted by The Hunger Games for days after I left the cinema. I fear that the air of Catching Fire might be hanging for weeks. There isn't a trivial moment in Suzanne Collins' writing. The books make you cry, laugh and bleed for its characters and the extreme situations they have to bear. I also applaud Gary Ross for not compromising the film adaptations. Everything in both movies are flawless. While I watch I get the feeling that everyone - actors, crew and the like - are giving their best to make the film as good as possible.

I still can't believe that Ella-Maria a.k.a. Lorde is actually younger than me. Notwithstanding, there are a thousand things worth mentioning about her, other than her age. Lorde stands out with her lyrics (which she writes herself), her ability to stay grounded in a lofty music industry and her immense talent. She is gorgeous. Everyone knows Tennis Court and Royals, but her other songs are also definitely worth a listen. My favorite is this remix of Bravado. Recently I discovered that she has her own tumblr too, filled with neat pictures which she describes "make her eyes happy".

pink and pretty

A guilty pleasure of mine is fashion. Every single day I click on fashion blogs and fill my head with pictures of overpriced bags. I can't explain why I do this, as I'm actually against a lot of what the fashion industry represents. The world would be a better place if we all didn't have to think about fashion - although it wouldn't be as well dressed. I think what I find fascinating about fashion is the personality behind the perfectly trimmed nails and labels. Fashion bloggers have as interesting opinions and unique ways to life as musicians and authors. In my book they count as artists.

This might explain why I carry the same enthusiasm for Alexa Chung's book It as for a new CD or a "real" book. Although I didn't quite know it before opening the book, Alexa Chung is the fashion girl above them all. She is a supermodel and a style icon, and on first names with Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour. In It she has made a sort of collage about her version of fashion, which doesn't come near describing what the book is actually about. The book is a mess but in a good way, and I think that is the reason why she has chosen a title that can mean anything.

It is a book about people and looks that inspire Alexa. It's a book about her favorite wardrobe items. It's a book with tips on how to dress yourself in the mornings and at night. It is incredibly inspiring although I have no explanation for it. And it isn't needed. You just have to enjoy the pictures, the words and the beautiful Alexa's thoughts.