Author: ana

about me

Categories
links and ideas postcrossing

lifestyle businesses

“There are more than 27 million businesses in the United States. About a thousand are huge conglomerates seeking to increase profits. Another several thousand are small or medium-size companies seeking their big score. A vast majority, however, are what economists call lifestyle businesses. They are owned by people whose goal is to do what they like and to cover their nut. These surviving proprietors hadn’t merely been lucky. They loved their businesses so much that they found a way to hold on to them, even if it meant making bad business decisions. It’s a remarkable accomplishment in its own right.”

from this nytimes article, via swissmiss.

we might not have a brick-and-mortar business, but this is us, word for word. :)

ps – plus, we’ve just hit 12 million registered postcards. another good day at “the office”!

Categories
photography

treeple exposure

treeples = three exposures of trees in a photo.

i think i might even like the color version better than the black and white one. :)

Categories
in germany just life

meet hans


this is hans. he lives in our street, and was the first resident we’ve met when we moved here. in the beginning, he scared us quite often… we’d be walking down the street and suddenly notice him right above us, looking out of his window!

we used to think he was creepy, but now we’re used to having him there and always greet him on our way home :) he’s like the neighbourhood watchman!

Categories
foooood in germany

the currywurst replacement

paris has its baguettes, lisbon has the pastéis de belém and berlin… well, berlin has the currywurst, a fried pork sausage, drowned in ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder. for a long time, it puzzled me. how could this be their thing? it didn’t appeal to me at all. i guess i was never a big fan of ketchup to start with… nor processed meat fried in vegetable oil… but we dully took all our visitors to try it out, just for them to get it done. some even liked it!
honestly, i can’t see it – and i don’t think anthony bourdain was very impressed either…

these days, i just skip it and go for the fries instead, dutch/belgium style with lots of mayo. yum! :)

Categories
in germany

stasi museum

we visited the stasi musem (and former headquarters) some months ago, after reading some reviews here and there – and especially after having watched the lives of others. in my mind, stasi is synonym with suspicion and the kind of dread that comes with not knowing who your real friends are… what would there be in a museum dedicated to an agency that inspired so much terror?
the museum tells the story of the ministry for state security from their origins till the day their headquarters were invaded by the people of berlin, in order to stop the destruction of secret files that was happening inside.

it profiles numerous victims that were imprisoned during the DDR and shows the tactics and cunning tricks used to spy on the population, as well as the propaganda methods of the time.
it also has some interesting architectural components: there’s a motionless paternoster, and some of the offices and rooms inside were kept intact, including the office of former stasi chef erich mielke. it’s bare, leaving it up to your imagination to place the characters of the story.
it’s a pity that not everything is translated into english yet, but nevertheless, what you can grasp is enough to induce a sense of unease that comes from knowing that the events described all around you took place here, not that long ago. lest we forget.

Stasimuseum Berlin
Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1
10365 Berlin
Germany