Presentations

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

After the amazing presentations on Friday, here comes my post.
For the KGP, I chose the Black Sites, Spanglish, Affirmative Action, Forrest Gump and Donald Trump. I find those are interesting topics and are also easily linked to the CLI's. Two of the topics I actually did not plan on chosing, but their presentations blew my mind and I had to change it.

I'll start off with my favorite presentations.

3. Forrest Gump: Juliane did a really great job! She was confident, spoke fluently and was well prepared. At first she seemed a little nervous, but that was fine. She spoke freely and in an slightly motivating way, since she opened her presentation with a little quiz. The prezi itself was well structured and she chose suitable pictures for the headings.

2. Spanglish: Before Antonija stood out there and told us what Spanglish is, I had no idea how fascinating it is! Her prezi was well structured and the exapmles she gave were excellent. I had no hard time following her at all and really liked listening to her. She sometimes had problems with pronunciation, but nothing too serious. She was one of those who made me change my topic because of her presentation. I loved how she arranged it and how she presented.

1. Donald Trump: Since the probable presidency of Trump is freaking us all out, Justus found a witty way to inform us about Donald Trump's plans for the US. The outcome was, they are all bullshit. However, Justus spoke freely all of the time, had an open body language, involved the audience and most importantly he knew what he was talking about. At first, I didn't want to chose this topic, but since Justus made it seem so easy and interesting, I had to.

And now, let's rock the KGP!

Why you want to come and see my presentation...

Hello everyone, I hope you all got through your PC's alive! ;-)
The semester has come to an end and we are now approaching the culture days. For this reason, I would like to present you my topic:

The Navy Seals are divided into several teams, eleven in total, and those teams have different fields of action. They were established by John F. Kennedy to eliminate terrorists and to maintain peace in Third World Countries. The soldiers receive special training in order to to able to conduct missions in Sea, Air and Land. They should master in martial arts, demolition, parachuting and many more.

If you want to find out about why the Navy Seals were criticized for executing the most dangerous terrorist and other important stuff, you'll definitely need to go to my presentation! :-P
Also, it is a topic which stays in mind very easily and is probably worth including in the KGP. (just sayin')

The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday

Thomas Insel

Hello there!

Ever thought of the idea that 30% of all disability from all medical causes can be traced back to mental disorders or neuropsychiatric syndromes? Thomas Insel talks about a fact that was viewed as ‘just’ a theory for many many years. Mental disorders can lead to a higher mortality rate than heart diseases or cancer. That is not because mental disorders are diseases, but because they are disabilities. What causes a high morbidity rate and also high mortality rate is the fact that these start very early in life. Over 50% will have onset by the age of 14.

Thomas Insel - toward a new understanding of mental illnesses

Thomas Insel is working on making a progress on these illnesses by studying them and finding a way to fight them. The brain is a complex organ, which we have just begun to understand. In fact, the brain does not even understand itself. With people who have sicknesses like schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder, experts still can’t explain how these influence or change brain functions.

For brain disorders, behavior is the last thing to change. Why is that important to know? Well, with diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s for example,  the changes of the brain appear decades before the first behavioral changes come to surface. With early detection doctors might be able to cure mental disorders rather than just treating them. This would be a fundamental breakthrough, however, technology is not yet advanced enough.

I need vacation!

I have to confess ... I ran out ideas, I do not know what to write about. My head hurts so badly, because I have about 5 exams to take and I am constantly studying or procrastinating. I know, sounds aweful and it is!!
So as I was up late yesterday, I searched through the web and found something interesting about my home: Carinthia and its beautiful landscape, surrounded by mountains and lakes.. I miss it really much lately and looking through the tourism page calmed me down a little bit.

Vacation on The Klopeiner See

I have to admit, I did not even know that you can do so many adventurous things around there, so I was pretty amazed. You have the opportunity to spend your vacation all year. You can go swimming in summer, hiking in spring and autumn and go skiing in winter. Basically everything is nearby.

What can you do in the winter?

In southern Carinthia there a plenty of opportunities to go skiing or snowboarding. When you are with your family, it is better to go to the Petzen. The ski slopes are not that steep, so perfect enough to teach toddlers how to ski ;-)
Strolling around the icy scenery is my favourite activity, because I never learned how to ski (unfortunately).

What can you do in the summer?

In summer, the entertainment in this area is even higher.
Depending on what passion you have (being lazy or being sporty and adventurous), this is the place to be. There are about seven rather small lakes and two of them are the more busy once. The Klopeiner See and the Turnersee. These lakes are two kilometers apart and can easily be reached by car, bike or public transportation as well. Also mountain biking in this area is said to be extreme as well as beautiful. Mostly I like to go swimming and play volleyball. As I am more lazy in the winter, I like to be more active in summer whenever there is time.

If you decide to spend your vacation in Austria, Carinthia is worth a look... :-)

Revolutionizing

As I have been watching a lot of news lately, I came across a very happy one: Homosexual couples are now officially allowed to adopt children in Austria!

Homosexuality between adults was legalised in 1971 and discrimination against someone's sexual orientation was forbidden in 2004. So why did it take fourty years to be able to adopt children?
Well, many people do not accept gay couples and the church is still against it. Therefore Austria is a bit late in this aspect. There was a lot going on about how homosexuality is "against nature".

So here is a personal story:

Even my parents are not fond of the idea that two male or two female people have a loving relationship with each other. I always argued with them and could not handle their intolerance. But when one day a very good friend of mine told me that he was homosexual, I was shocked. I was mindblown and reacted in a silly way. What my mother did, surprised me in every possible way: She told me not to react so harsh and shocked, because it was not easy for my friend to tell me that and she also calmed me down. That was the moment I realised, that she was not intolerant, because she could not stand the thought of someone being gay, but because she did not know anyone who was. Basically she was the one who told me to stop freaking out about it. I have never been so proud of my mother before! My guess is that people who are intolerant actually do not know it better.

I followed discussions on social media and I am disgusted by most of the comments about how aweful it is that homosexuals can adopt children now. Nowadays everything is acceptable, but this tiny relaxing of regulations makes people lose their minds.

If someone reads this, who is in a same-sex relationship:

 You are awesome and people who do not like you the way you are, are not worth a minute of your time!

To Write Love on Her Arms

Short: TWLOHA is an American non-profit organization which aims to help people who struggle with depression, addiction, autoaggression and thoughts of suicide. Based in Florida, TWLOHA seeks to connect affected people with treatment centers, support groups and much more.

The organization tries to find a large audience by spreading their own merchandise and commercial campagnes. A lot of musicians and bands get photographed wearing TWLOHA's T-shirts, beanies or hoodies during public events and performances. However, it recently gained much more public exposure through merchandise and public community websites, such as: Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

Love Is the Movement

To Write Love on Her Arms was founded by Jamie Tworkowski in 2006. Prior to that Tworkowski wrote a story about a girl who struggeled with addiction and self-injury and how it helped her to get moral support of friends and family. 

The non-profit organization has 12 full-time employees and six enterns.

Right at the beginning of the project T-shirts were printed and worn by famous bands. This led the attention to the newly developed organization and soon after that they could break through and start helping. To date, TWLOHA responded to over 170,000 messages from over 100 countries and invested over $ 1,200,000 in treatment and recovery.

Additionally, a movie is being realesed this year, showing Tworkowskie's story and life of Renee Yohe (mentioned above), starring Kat Dennings and Chad Michael Murray.

Bookworm

Hello there! As I am reading many books lately, I would like to tell you something about a breathtaking one.
After finishing my one-month summer job I got a little bored. So I decided to buy or borrow myself some books to pass some time. I think I read about ten books - some of them incredibly good and some unfortunately not.

The author Harlan Coben (some of you may heard of him) impressed me with two of his books already and I intend to read some more. However, I want to tell you about the first book I read - Tell No One.
It is a thriller novel and Coben's first to appear on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Thirteen years after their first kiss Dr. David Beck and his wife Elizabeth celebrate their anniversary as a young married couple where the first kiss took place. But in this very night everything changes, turns into disaster. The couple is being attacked, Elizabeth kidnapped and Dr. Beck is being left behind, because he was claimed dead.

A few weeks after that horrible news reached Dr. Beck and Elizabeth's family. Elizabeth is yet another victim of KillRoy, who unfortunately cannot be charged for her murder.

After eight years - Dr. Beck is still not willing to move on and start a new life without his beloved wife. Suddenly he starts to receive strange e-mails which basically indicate that Elizabeth might still be alive. And if that isn't disturbing enough, the FBI is after him because they suspect him for the murder of two men found at the lake where him and Elizabeth have been attacked eight years earlier. It turns out that these two men had something to do with the disappearance of Dr. Beck's wife.

As Dr. Beck suffered from Amnesia and could never explain how he could escape from the crimescene, he is suddenly being accused for Elizabeth's murder as well. Due to Elizabeth's high life assurance, he is the number one suspect...

At first the book seemed a little bit boring, because Harlan tells the background story and the basic information of the protagonists. But the further I read the more I enjoyed it. He built the tension more and more up with every chapter. After I reached the second half, I was barely able to put the novel out of my hands and before I realised it, I read the rest of Tell No One all at once.
A few days ago i finished another book of Harlan Coben - Shelter. Amazing! Must read!