Patrick Welker was an audio-engineer, is now a student, and writes about technology at RocketInk. These are his good things.
Good things to read.
My first pick is Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers. Moers is a the German fantasy author who build his own micro-cosmos – a world called Zamonia which is the place of action in all of his books. He’s also one of the authors who likes his anonymity – I never have seen a picture of him, only the illustrations he draws himself and which are part of all his books. Moers is great at inventing odd characters and creatures. Although all his work is outstanding I choose Rumo because the story has some morbid scenes (which his other books don’t have). It was also my first Moers book. So I have kind of an emotional connection with it. If I’d have to name one thing that I took from it, I’d say it is to “stay hungry”. If I don’t consume too much of the worlds excess supply of anything, I’m in alert mode and can focus on being more productive.
The second book I will add this my little list here is again from a German author: Herrmann Hesse’s Steppenwolf. It appeals to me when the hero of a novel is a loner and all washed-up. The first time I read this book was in my “Sturm und Drang” period. Gladly it aged well and still is a great read. Parental advisory: this book contains social criticism and personality analysis.
Door number three: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I can’t read this book without feeling lost… which is no wonder since one of the main themes of it is escapism. But it’s not the only theme; there are a variety of themes Mann was able to integrate into his novel. It’s like he put all the new inventions and discoveries the early 20th century brought and wrote a ship in a bottle containing all the essentials of that time.
Good things to watch.
Despite having a solid line-up of German authors, I don’t enjoy the German movie landscape that much. In short, I’ll spare you. No German movie recommendations from me.
A movie I can watch over and over is The Big Lebowski by the Coen brothers.
I also watch a lot of anime and cartoons. A TV series I did not expect to be good at all turned out to impress me in the most positive way: Avatar: The Last Airbender. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole ride.
My last pick for the realm of moving pictures is Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Not a movie for everybody. I had to stop the movie in the middle when watching it with my dad who questioned me all the time if there will happen anything at all in this flick. Whatever. If you’re okay with an semi-artificial world filtered through the lens of Mr. Anderson you might enjoy it, too. I love Bill Murray in this movie, the soundtrack is brilliant and the colorful kind of bizarre the director captured on celluloid.
Good things to use.
In the year 2010 I already was a non-smoker for 5 years (after 11 years of smoking). Anyway, I missed several things: rituals and blowing clouds. I took another couple of years before I arrived at the perfect vaping device: Reo’s Mods. The simplicity of the mod reminds me of Apple devices and the flavor you get out of this bottom-feeder is outstanding. If you’re a vaper and haven’t tried a Reo, you’re missing out on something. … and if you don’t mix your own eJuices I can recommend Mad Murdock’s liquids.
Another discovery which brought me much joy came to me in the shape of a shoe: the Nike Free 3.0. Currently it’s not available anymore and has been replaced by the Flyknit version. It’s the lightest shoe that I own and it is super comfortable. I even wear them at home and probably could even wear them while sleeping, too.
I was going to write “an iPhone” because it’s the pocket computer which can do everything and is always with me…. But, I’m going with a Synology NAS for my last pick. The OS it ships with is easy to navigate, I own the DS412+ which comes with 4-bays for enough storage to keep your digital life organized at available everywhere. If you’re the geeky type of fellow you can run all your bash scripts on it, too.
Connect with Patrick on Twitter @_PatrickWelker.
Three things to read, watch, and use 