Sprungl

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Italy is even more beautiful in autumn colours.

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Mellow yellow.

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Did some window shopping in Italy. 

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Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

Kurt Vonnegut

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The Wedding Band - Thumper

My favorite kind of music lately. 

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December 2012 in photos

Happy new year 2013!

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Currently on (my) TV.

"Episodes" - season 2

Episodes is a British sitcom, starring Matt LeBlanc, Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig. It revolves about two married British writers who move to Hollywood to shoot an American version of their successful UK show.The plot for the show is brilliant and something new. I liked the first season, but think it was all a bit rushed. With some shows, like soap operas, (not that I watch them :D ), they tend to wind things out, well this show could learn just a bit from that, there could have been so many more jokes and episodes of Episodes in the first season. Like just the language barrier or the whole process of filming could have added up for a brilliant and funny episode or two of the show. Also 20 minutes or so per episode is not nearly enough, because there are simply too many stories going on to fit into one episode.

What I do like about the show is that it doesn't underestimate the viewer and its clever, just the fact that Beverly is now more Hollywood like for example she dresses better, wears more make up, smokes, and eats green beans instead of crisps. Those detailes are what attract me to a show. The actors are doing a good job, wouldn't say a great one, since it does lack some depth, that 3rd dimension to make it more realistic, more heartfelt. Matt stands out, of course, he plays a smarter but less likeable version of Joey, and he does a great job! It has some great comedy moments, won't tell you which just watch the show! 

Overall its a fresh funny but sadly too short funny sitcom. Recommend you should watch it!

"Americas next top model" - season 2134

Yes I know I said I love clever writing and laughter and yet I watch americas next top model, the reason is that its/was simply brilliant concept. Never considered modeling or anything like that but still what defers this from any other shows, is the actual passion everyone has, from Tyra Banks, to the models, etc. Also the ever clever concepts of the photo-shot locations, talented photographers, make up artists are what appeals me to the show. And its always fun watching people bitch about the mess someone else made! 

This season whoever is rather dull, you can tell they have been doing this for too long! Tyra is there for a few seconds just to say who has been eliminated and to show how much weight she gained/lost. If you never watched Americas next top model, I suggest to give this season a miss and rather watch some other earlier episodes. 

"X-files" - season 1 - 7

A few months ago I started watching X-files, from episode 1 onwards. Its been an incredible journey. I'm a huge Sci-fi fan and this being a classic show I just had to watch it and don't regret watching it! Its one of those shows where they got everything right. The actors portraying Mulder and Scully, well I couldn't imagine anyone else doing them justice, even the supporting cast is a great pick. It has comedy moments, serious moments, running jokes, running bad guys, aliens, etc. There is a great overall plot, but the small one episode unrelated stories provide a refreshing feel which is why the show could live so many seasons!

Overall a great show, if you like Sci-fi, aliens, brilliant acting, clever plots, geekiness and hot thoughtful guys.

Besides the shows mentioned above I also enjoy Midsumer murders (brilliant clever detective show), Have I got news for you (panel news quiz show) as well as others. Which shows do you watch these days? 

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My first time...

Together with @zigaDolar we created a game for the iphone/ipod from scratch in a years time. We are really proud of it, since it was our first time creating an app and we think we did alright! We spent all of our free time and had fun making it. We did the concept, design, all of the programming and most of the sound effects. 

The story is that Little Claw and his big brother have gone for a walk, but suddenly Little claw falls into a hole in the ground, which actually leads to a factory room. His big brother is now trying to save him from the factory and he needs your help!

You can buy the game by clicking here, if you do we both thank you! If you don't have an iOS device, then like it on Facebook or follow Little claw on Twitter. All of the info is on LittleClawApp.com. Or just tweet or share it with everyone you know. All the love Little Claw gets is appreciated (and actually helps him get saved as soon as posible)! :) 

Also there is a new update coming soon with lots of new levels, different rooms as well as a special surprise.... 

Thank you for reading/buying/clicking/sharing!!!

Lili

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Love what you do!

Living isn't easy No need to make it harder Stretch yourself until you snap Ditch your superstitions Lose your inhibitions Tell them you're not coming back If you want it, you can have it If you need it, go and get it Whatever it is you've got to love it Everybody's running Round and round in circles What is it they're trying to prove? Exercise your freedom Exorcise those demons You have got to love what you do If you want it, you can have it If you need it, go and get it Whatever it is you've got to love it

My main passion is comedy, its been this way since I was a small girl. It started with Ace Ventura: Pet detective, which I must have watched 100+ times. It continued over the years with American comedy mainly, TV shows as well as political satire such as the Daily show and even in my teens I enjoyed a bit of George Carlin, Monty Pythons, etc But then one day after going thorough some weird connections I discovered British radio comedy. It all started with Stephen Fry somehow, it was a phase where I watched/listened every show he was on, there I discovered Just a minute and Paul Merton. Paul was beyond funny, he was quick-witted, hilarious and with a pinch of grumpiness that the British must all have! Just a minute, the radio show in which you have a minute to talk about a topic you are given, was a joy to listen to and thought it was the top of the comedy iceberg, that was until I discovered Have I got news for you. HIGNFY is a TV show which looks back on the weeks news in a satirical way, it was fun, fresh and new to me, don't know if I should feel proud or shame in admitting I watched all 20 years worth of the show. If you are British and watch the show you mostly know who are all the politicians and celebrities from Lembit Öpik to Jimmy Savile, I on the other hand had to do a bit of research (read: googling) throughout the years. From HIGNFY I went to on to discover two of my favourite shows I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and the News quiz. News quiz is a radio version of HIGNFY, the late and great Alan Coren made his mark on the show, with his wit and humour and the show is still wonderful after all the years. ISIHAC was something completely new to me, from the random ramblings in Mornington Crescent to the many puns which at first took me a while to get, English not being my first language. At first I just laughed at the singing challenges and occasional pun, but throughout the years it became my constant companion and with pride I admit I listened to almost all the shows, albeit there is 40 years of shows! I still love to listen to the show, despite the sad death of the one of a kind chairman of the show Humphrey Lyttelton. So besides those wonderful shows, I did watch a lot of bad ones, listened to many failed jokes by stand-up comedians which I don't want to mention, but overall fell in love with British humour and culture, polished my English language skills and got to know a lot about the comedy world.

Therefor my ideal job would be a comedy radio producent. Its what I would love to do! It would be something I would gladly do for free!*

Sadly its British comedy and it requires working at the BBC in London what I would love to do, the problem with that is, I live in Slovenia! Recently I applied for BBC production trainee scheme/pool (PTP2012), and despite the fact I got to the 4th elimination round, sadly didn't get the position. But what now, the songs says if you want it, you can have it. Sadly songs tend to be romanticised and life embellished so guess I just can't want it and simply have it, well not for now at least....

*when one says they would do it for free, they tend to not consider they can't live of air. But yeah I would gladly have a second and a third job just to support that one!

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Finding a Job

With 4+ years of work experience, a decent education and a desire to work and learn just about anything I have a huge problem finding a job in my country of Slovenia.

The main problem seems to be student work. You see in our country to have a student status means you get paid lower wages and thats what employers look for, they offer normal working hours jobs to students (a 9-5 administrative, programming, etc jobs). The students of course need the money so they take the jobs. But what they don't know is when they get out of college they will have no work experience despite working as a student, since the same companies that hired them to work won't acknowledge their jobs as work experiences. 

So if you are like me and had a few working years in the administrative job field as a student and try to apply for a proper job for the first time and get rejected a few times based on the fact you don't have any work experience, you don't have much choice but to search for a job bellow your education. But the problem that arises then is if you want a better job you can't have it since they look for the last job you had and then you are screwed since again you don't have proper job experience. Its a never-ending circle. 

Besides the problem that most companies employ students to save money, there is a second huge problem in our small country. The problem is that even if they don't look for a student and you are well qualified for the job it is likely taken before the job ad went out. That is because in this country you need to have great connections, be it family acquaintance, ex-work colleagues, etc to get a job. But before they employ you they need to put out an ad for the work, because apparently thats the law. So if you are like me you then tend to send out lots of applications to ghost job ads and you only figure that out when they don't reply. 

I only apply for jobs I am qualified or even over-qualified for, I have a high school degree and a few years of computer science and informatics college, I speak 4+ languages, have working experience dealing with people, am nice and hard working and never ever miss any deadlines, and to top it all I have advanced computer skills (programming, windows, linux, mac osx, office, etc, etc...) plus lots more. Yet I never can get to any jobs, I tend to apply to secretarial jobs, administrative jobs etc., can't even get to an interview.

I'm actually not surprised why our rate of unemployment is over 11%. Finding a job in this country has proven to be nearly impossible and I am not even picky! 

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All British stereotypes are true!

Recently I visited England for the 4th time, or was it my 3rd time, perhaps my 5th, who knows, lets say it was my 4th time. The trip was all about British comedy and walking around exploring all the interesting things London has to offer. 

But on the first day I realised that all of the stereotypes, myths and jokes are true. We were on our way to see the I'm sorry I haven't a clue show in Manchester and earlier bought two tickets for the 8.20 am train from London to Manchester. Got up early in the morning, hurried from train station to underground to reach Euston station on time, only to find all the trains were delayed due to works on the lines, well at least there weren't leaves on the line! I'm used to hearing all these jokes about the British railways not being on time, but then you think it can't be that bad. So we waited, and waited, then waited some more, until all of a sudden there was an announcement that our train wasn't going anywhere and instead we should go on the earlier train. And we ran towards the other train, only to find it was full, and our reserved seats weren't valid anymore. We planned to have lunch on the train, instead we sat in different seats, next to strangers in the quiet coach who clearly disobeyed the quiet coach rules by snoring very loudly. But after almost 3 hours of drive up North, we made it to Manchester and had a wonderful time watching a 2 hour ISIHAC show, after which we could have used some ice packs to heal the pain that too much laughter has caused.

And then there was London, you know how they say London is a foggy, rainy, cloudy city, well if they don't say that they should start, it certainly was miserably looking for all of the 7 days we were there. Even Manchester was sunnier and warmer. When we left Slovenia it was sunny and up to 36 degres of Celsius and then we arrived to London with its high of 16 degres and rain, I was grateful I packed my winter clothes! But not to be that critical of London, we did have at least two hours of sunshine per week. 

But what makes up for all the delays, waiting, stabbing, bad moments and the awful weather, are the wonderful and kind people of Britain! We still had a lot of fun, enjoyed exploring London and going to all the shows, meeting all the lovely people,etc. So all is well that ends well. Not even the bad weather or the delays can keep me away from London, so to quote the immortal words of Arnold: "I'll be back..."

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Chairman Humph

People I admire are the ones who do what they love and because of that are good at it, and the man this post is about certainly fits into that category! 

Humphrey Lyttelton, or Humph as many prefer to call him, was born on 23rd of May 1921 at Eton college to a father who was house master there, so he naturally went to Eton and everyone expected him to become a lawyer or have a similar more serious profession. But no Humph after coming back from WWII became a cartoonist for the Daily mail. His passion was jazz and he and his band had a top charts hit Bad Penny Blues, worked with Radiohead and made many songs and played even more great concerts. Besides all that he was the best host of ISIHAC, his deadpan style of humus or even humour is what made the brilliant jokes even funnier! He was the host of ISIHAC and presenter of BBC's "Best of Jazz" for over 40 years. Besides all that he was also a calligraphist, a bird watcher and always found the time for his fans! He was a father, a husband, a friend and to many of us he was simply Humph the man that made us laugh every time we heard him say: "Welcome to Just a minute", ohh no wait wrong show. All joking aside, Humphrey Lyttelton was great and extraordinary, a man of many talents and intrests. You could clearly see he did what he loved in life and thats the thing we should all learn from him.

Even at the age of 86 he still played the trumpet with his band and still recorded episodes of ISIHAC and was funnier then ever! And although he died two years ago on this day, he still makes me laugh every time I listen to old ISIHAC episodes, or when I read one of his books. I guess the great never really die!

Will now leave you with a couple of videos of the late and trully great Humphrey Lyttelton. So it goes.

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Urban Spaceman

Went to see Neil Innes perform live. Seeing him live was on my "very long to do before I die list". The list still includes things like go to an NBA basketball game, watch I'm sorry I haven't a clue live, and many other very random things.

But back to Neil Innes. The mini concert started at around 8pm and after 2 encores lasted until 10.30 pm, we did demand another encore but Neil said he is old and its past his bedtime. Nearly missed the last bus home but it would have been worth it if I did! For the second encore he sang my favourite song Urban Spaceman (video bellow), the song was produced by Sir Paul McCartney. The song was my ringtone for years so it was a great feeling hearing it live. Overall a great evening filled with tears of laughter, some audience participation and lots of clapping!

Photo from www.neilinnes.org since my BlackBerry photos were such bad quality. 

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No snow, no show

As the title, which is the slogan of the smiling man above named Marc Berthod,suggests this one will be all about snow, well mainly about skiers.

Just spent a very enjoyable weekend watching world cup skiing in Kranjska Gora. I've been watching skiing on TV for about 10 years now, ever since I first saw Benjamin Raich ski (pictured below giving an interview for ORF).

This has been my 4th time I've been to Kranjska Gora/Vitranc world cup and it gets better each year. In case you don't believe me here is a photo of Marc Berthod 4 years younger and without the beard and the long hair.

So yes we established I do love skiing and skiers. But even if you dislike men in spandex suits, the atmosphere at a world cup skiing race is amazing! You get there at around 9.30 am and stand in the cold and snow until 2.30 pm, what could be better... well for me nothing!

We've been to two races this year, and the BIB number draw (pictured below) which takes place in Kranjska Gora followed by a concert.

The race itself takes place in Podkoren a good 30 minute walk away from Kranjska Gora. First event was the Giant Slalom race whose winner was the amazingly fast Austrian, the 20 year old Marcel Hirscher with Kjetil Jansrud in second place and Ted Ligety (pictured below) in third.

On Sunday there was the Slalom race in which Rainfred Herbst won and Hirscher was again in the podium in second place and Julien Lizeroux (pictured below), who is probably the worlds nicest person just because he took a photo with everyone who asked and signed all the autographs, came in third place.

And what would be a skiing event if it weren't for "old" skiing legends. Pictured below are Alberto Tomba politely waving at me, who was kind enough to take a photo with me later on, and our two champs Andrej Šporn and Jure Košir.

And here is one more skiing downhill legend, Franz Klammer.

Time to end with a couple of photos of the amazing snowy landscape, it was a fun weekend which will hopefully be repeated next year and the year after that and the year...

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#XMAS

Merry Christmas, happy holidays to all!

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Good-bye London

Here are some more photos from my London trip uploaded to flickr.

Click here if you are interested in seeing the photos or/and click here for the previous post about London.

As I've removed the comments because they weren't always working properly, you can contact me via above email or twitter if you have any questions or anything to say.

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The British are lovely...

Overwhelmed doesn't begin to describe how I feel right now, baffled, full of joy, confused, fan struck, dazzled come close! But most of all grateful.

Just came back from a overall perfect trip in London. Here are some of the photos that show the highlights of my trip.

First night I spent watching adults make complete idiots of themselves and loved every second of it! Karaoke Circus was lovely night out.

Goran Ivanišević after the first match at the Albert Hall. Mansour Bahrami, the Iranian tennis player was the highlight!

Having tea on the staircase of the Albert Hall before the second night of tennis matches.

The lovely guest-house where we stayed, its in North Lambeth and a delightful place to stay if you want to explore central London!

Oscar Wilde was right as always!

Tea at the Ritz, well it was everything you imagine and more, yes its expensive but its worth it!

Yes I of course I had to go all the way to Mornington Crescent just so I could take a few photos. Noticed there still isn't a blue plaque for Humphrey Lyttelton, London should be ashamed, he was truly a great man and deserves it!

Ian Hislop and Richard Ingrams at the Private Eye Annual book singing. I've been a fan of Ingrams for many years, I've listened to him on the news quiz, read many articles writen by him so to see him there, well it left me speechless!

The lovely Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders opening the "a not so silent night" concert with a few jokes. The concert was something completely different, with performances from Boy George, Martha Wainwright, and many many others.

Rufus and his boyfriend, they sang Silent Night in German, both have amazing voices!

The Comedy Store where you see Paul Merton and other brilliant comedians do impro twice a week! We went to the screening of the wonderful documentary about the life of Jim Sweeney. Here is the link to the trailer. Go and see it if you can, its hilarious! Or follow Jim Sweeney on twitter.

On our last night we went to the recording of "Have I got news for you". And afterwards to the 14th floor of the London studios for complimentary drinks with Ian Hislop, Paul Merton, James May,etc

Whilst in London I also meet two very lovely twitter friends who made the London trip even more memorable so thanks you two!

Overall it was fucking amazing trip! Hopefully next time I'm in London I'll go to a recording of "I'm sorry I haven't a clue" and then I'll have ticked all the boxes on my "To do/see list in the UK"...