Awesome Decks - Five Mile Scarecrow

My second ever longboard had to be something special and extravagant (just as my bass guitars, tell me if you want to see them). Also, I wanted to have a top-mounted deck as I was sick of the beginners-friendly feeling of the NinetySixty BooBam. And I aimed for a update on the graphic as well, you understand once you've seen the BooBam. Then I saw Scarecrow.

Top-mounted - check.

Extravagant - Look at this concave and the nose and tail, CHECK.

Nice graphic - Love the colors and the motive, check.

I added Paris trucks in red and matched the wheels and the bearings as well - but I am now looking for a better exchange bearing because the old ones really suck. Although I messed it up a little by having to much of a stress on the style, I really love how it feels on the street. As I have to go downhill pretty much everywhere I go, I really appreciate how the pockets lock your feet in and you can easily keep a little swing to your driving. But I don't really reach any top speeds, although it is actually going down a hill - the rough ground and the fact that it's still in Germany's rather flat northern area don't make for a fast track. Also, the W-concave really keep the weight down and gives just the right flex for me. You might have some issues at first getting along with the bulge, especially under your front-foot toes, but it becomes really important in judging the optimal position of your feet once you've found it. And the price of $160 makes it a really nice deal for a very special board.

Blogs To Read - love from berlin

Today I want to introduce to you to Rae Tashman, a digital product designer and photographer, obviously located in Berlin. Also she runs her blog that is built with a big focus on visuals but the texts are at least as important. I'm going back to browsing through her archive now, see you wednesday.

http://raetashman.com/
http://www.lovefromberlin.net/


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Alien Post - Mockingjay

Might be a little behind with that movie and I actually watched it some weeks ago. However, I didn't get to write about it until today. These are some things that stuck to my mind and for me are the major facts about Mockingjay.

Cut at the right spots.
There is this one thing I totally love about the Hunger Games movies: They are cut at the right spots. Especially after Catching Fire and now Mockingjay part one I can't wait for the next movie to come to the cinemas.

Hysterical screaming.
Also I really appreciated how Katniss kept her hysterical screaming to the minimum this time around - it pretty much made me hate the first movie.

Design of District 13.
At first I was a little disappointed by the design of District 13, but only until you got out of the living quarters. All the high tech elements were as impressive as in the Capitol.

Mockingjay evolution.
It is fascinating to see how the Mockingjay emblem changes over the movies and how it more or less sticks to the book covers. Also I found this fan edit including the possible, unofficial emblem for the last movie.



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One Day In Hamburg - Christmas Time

One thing that's perfect in Hamburg in December is all the bright Christmas decoration that is spread all over the city. This here is just a tiny piece of it spread over maybe half a mile through the city. But I had a really good time trying out some stuff with the town hall and how it was lit from below and the clouds hushing by.

The scale of Christmas trees.

Love how this picture turned out with really warm colors..

While this one is really moody, especially the dark top.

A little too bright but I love how the buildings pops out from the background.

I like how the seagull sneaked in on this one.

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Cold Days Longboarding Outfit

Of course there are many longboarders that only ride in the summer because of the trend and the style. But if you are like me and the longboard is your major way of transportation you might know the struggle of iced hands and cold air inside your jacket. I found myself some ways to fight the cold so that I can stay on the board not only on the glaciers.

Softshell jacket. One of the major problems is that the warmed up air inside your jacked gets pushed out by the cold air because of wind and your own movements. First step to counteract that is to buy a wind proof softshell jacket. You might want to find one with a little strip of fabric behind the zipper - I often felt the cold sneaking through that cracks.

Flexible gloves. When choosing your gloves you might want to go for the thinner ones. There is nothing worse for me than loosing the grip on my fingers, so I always use my winter biking-gloves for longboarding as well. They have the right balance of keeping your fingers warm and usable. If you have a bad day and it's too cold for your fingers, just get the blood into your hands by closing and opening your fists repeatedly.

Oversize and layers. I generally like to wear larger cloths when I'm on the board - in the summer they provide good air circulation but when it's cold they have another effect. Your shirts make your jacket tighter around the waist because of the excess cloth. Also you get the possibility of working out warm wind proof joints at your hands and feet. Layering up shirts and jackets also helps with that.

Beanie and scarf. There is one thing I love about the cold season: Hiding my face behind a fluffy and warm scarf. I pull it up tightly over my nose so that the warm air I'm breathing out flow all around my cheeks and over my eyes - all the condensing water gets caught in your eyelashes but that's totally worth it. Even better is to have a beanie on your head as well so there is nothing more than your eyes exposed to the cold and your ears are protected by two layers of fabric.

So do you have your own ways to tackle the cold or do you prefer public transport as soon as it gets colder?


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Stay On The Board

So, you might know that winter is not my favorite season for longboarding. My fingers got cold even with 25+°C sometimes, as they don't really have any task and just hang in the wind most of the time. But now - late November - it is really painful sometimes. Also the cold air gets up your sleeves, the street tends to never really get dry and it gets dark way too soon. Many longboarders search for an alternative and most of them end up snowboarding. I personally did it the other way round: I just couldn't wait one year to get onto the snowboard again and didn't want to go for indoor winter sports. Here are some of my experiences about transitioning from longboarding to snowboarding and vice versa.

Rear foot steering. I personally pretty much kick out my rear foot when I'm turning on a snowboard - just like sliding on a longboard. At the same time, you will most likely miss the sliding all the times you're in the city without slopes.

Locking in your feet. My girlfriend didn't trust the longboard at first because she was used to being strapped to the board. But as I told her, there is nothing to worry about. My feet did never just slide of the board - neither while carving nor pushing.

Atmosphere. Of course, the atmosphere is totally different. On a longboard you can go on for hundreds of miles without ever visiting the same place twice. On the snowboard you are pretty much limited to the mountains you're around and you will have to stop after a trail of maybe 10 miles, if you're lucky.

Does anyone of you have other experiences with these differences or did you notice anything else?


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Giving In To Blogging Stereotypes

I never liked these cliche bloggers that post nothing else than top lists, awards and link ups. But actually - now that I blog myself - I understand how good it feels to have a scheme to work by and build your content around. Also readers as well as authors have a benefit from them:

Top lists: As a reader it is super comfortable to go through a list of eight or ten facts or tips and just leave out the ones that don't catch your interest within the first  two or three words. At the same time you can write it in a very easy way as you can split your research and writing into little texts. Perfect to take one item at a time whenever you find five or ten minutes to write on it.

Awards: If you want to find new blogs to read, just search through your favorite blog and see if he or she ever did one of the blogging awards. Usually there are ten bloggers nominated and also you can go by the blog that nominated the one that you are reading. Obviously, as a blogger you get some extra visitors from your nomination and also you have a guide to write your post by.

Link ups: Another community based kind of post that lives from and for creating a community and getting support from other people. When writing link ups you pretty much just have to build a platform for you readers -  maybe a topic to discuss about or one theme everybody can share their ideas about.

What are your favorite kinds of posts to write and read?

One Day In Hamburg - Essentials

Water, the most important thing to humans. With six times as many bridges as in Venice or double the bridges of Amsterdam water is also a pretty big thing to Hamburg. These are some shots of the Alster and the Elbe, the biggest and most important water surfaces in Hamburg.

Alien Post - The Stormlight Archive

Recently I really got into fantasy books again and the one I was most impressed by is The Way Of Kings from the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson. I guess it's my girlfriend's fault. One evening she told me about the new book series she was reading and while she told me about the story (for once not spoiling me) she showed me some drawings that were included in the book. And for some reason, it drew my interest. So after she finished reading, or rather devouring the novel, I got it and this is what it is about:
In this first book the story is mostly built around the young man Kaladin who originally thought of war to be his chance to get out of the life he was born into but ends up as a slave, condemned by the man he would've given his life for. Of course slaves were wanted for war as well, what brought him to the worst place to be: The Shattered Plains, where the most brutal and outrageous war of all time was fought by the human race on the one side and the Parshendi on the other side, assumed to be responsible for the assassination of king Gavilar of Alethkar. King, assassination, war - sounds obvious, right?
At the same time - but on the other side of the continent - Shallan is fighting her own battle in order to save her family. To win the trust of the most important woman, the king's sister Jasnah Kholin, she tries to become her ward at first only to steal pretty much the most powerful item mankind knows about, a soulcaster, used to form anything you want from any material you want. Practically a way to make food from stone and water from soil.
Well, give it a try if you like what you've read so far. Book two, Words Of Radiance is also out already and book three is to be released in 2016 - so still enough time to read the first two over and over again.


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Blogs To Read - Muted Mornings

© Mimmi Rönning

And Sweden scores again: Mimmi Rönning is 19 years old and currently living in Glasgow where she's studying English Literatur. I love how she is one of the few bloggers now who write about whatever happens in their lives while others stick to their editorial calendars - although that might be fitting for their branches. However, I like her for her writing, topics and pictures that are always composed to awesome posts. Especially her appreciative posts are a nice read when you need to see the good things in life. Well, just browse through her blog a little and you'll find a lot of nice stories to read.

Latest appreciative post: One month in Glasgow & Appreciative Post #6
Muted Mornings || Bloglovin

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Visual Vibes - He Nailed It

Do you remember Ben Brown from three months ago? Not that it was the only time I mentioned him, but it was the last time that he released one of his Visual Vibes videos. So guess what happened this week: Buffer Festival in Toronto, Canada. A festival bringing content creators from YouTube to theaters all over Toronto. Many more or less famous YouTubers showed their latest creations and milestones and gave a little background information to each of the videos. Also pretty much everyone had a meetup after the screening where as many of the fans as possible got the opportunity to take pictures and get their questions answered.



So, this is Ben's latest masterpiece: The Canada Visual Vibes. Shot on his sponsored trip through Canada two months ago he captured the amazing wildlife and breathtaking views of mountains and ice-cold blue-water lakes that are spread all over the country. The editing took it's time (also because of the Seven Swims where he produced seven awesome videos for Lewis Pugh) but it turned out wonderful. I don't know what it is like if you don't know about the adventures he had in Canada, because for me it is also a awesome recap of all the things he did with Steve Booker and all the other people on the trip.

So whether you want to see what Canada might be holding for you or just like awesome film making you should definitely take a look at this video and subscribe to Ben for daily vlogs and travelling Visual Vibes.


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One Day in Hamburg - Alstervergnügen

So over the summer every year, there are some events that just affect the whole city. This here is a good example: the Alstervergnügen / the Alster pleasure. While the larger part of the lake Alster is home to all kinds of small boats, sports enthusiasts and all winter lovers when the ice is thick enough (that happes like once in five years and becomes a pretty big thing), the smaller part is home to many events and street festivals like the CSD and of course the Alstervergnügen, once in the summer months and once in the winter months. The pictures are one and a half months old now but is still was a pretty awesome day to spend in Hamburg.

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Alien Post - Snapseed

If you are on Instagram you know how hard it is to get a badly shot picture right so you won't embarrass yourself in front of you followers. The Android and iOS app Snapseed is a super easy and free way to edit your shots for Instagram or any other pictures taken with your DSLR and in-phone camera. You have more possibilities than with the in-app Instagram editor and also the modifiers are better, both usability and performance wise.



You can decide how far you want to go: from basics like brightness and saturation or getting the framing right to rather arty features like center focus and HDR scape. However, it is super intuitive and every time you try out a new modifier you get an overlay with all important information for controlling it.

You don't always have to bring big changes to the colors, sometimes you might want to make it look like it wasn't even edited at all. But some pictures just scream for a make over.

Or maybe the are some spots in the pic that are too dark. Just use the selective adjust to boost these spots and dark alleys become fun and colorful.

So if you want to edit your shots on the go or just don't want to spend money on Photoshop or an professional app, this is perfect for you. Sometimes I even sit there for one hour or more to get the picture to where I think it's finished. You don't even have to know what you want, just tweak it 'till you like it and spread it out to the internet.


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Getting Inspired By Strangers

People are inspirational. How they dress, how they talk and what they do might give you a hint at an awesome idea at any time. So what is the perfect plan if you want to create new content and get work done? Getting out of your flat.

Doesn't matter if you're just heading out into the nature or getting down at a awesome place with an awesome view and awesome vibes getting your head heated up by ideas en masse. Or check in to a cozy coffee shop, get yourself a nice drink of your choice and get out your MacBook - or any other device that you work on.

What I want to say is that you need to get comfortable in your temporary workplace to get creative. This in combination with some nice people to watch are a super boost to your workflow.


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Blogs To Read - Nicole Eddy

So, may I introduce: Nicole Eddy, 22 years old, from Cape Town, South Africa. Her blog, named after herself, isn't that old yet - she released her first post on May 15, 2014. Besides that, she's currently studying psychology. And media & writing. And environmental & geographical sciences. Business as usual, right?

© Nicole Eddy

Of course, Cape Town is the perfect place for adventure lovers. Mountains to climb, oceans to swim and surf in, the South African nature in general is full of awesome views, places and animals. At least that's what I'd say. As I've never been there and been used to the Central European flora and fauna all my life, that isn't that much of a scale. But I would really love to go there for a month or two to explore the city and all other kinds of adventures.

Her posts are mostly divided into three categories: With her Lifestyle posts, Nicole shows us what she likes to do and how she lives her life. Most part of the Travel posts is her London Journal, a series of posts that let us follow her through her 3-week trip to London, where she visited her boyfriend Ben Brown (maybe you remember him from an earlier post). Actually, without him I wouldn't have know her at this point, thanks Ben. So the last major category is Issues of Our Time. Rather serious topics, that make you think while and after reading it. Also you should really take your time for these as they might come out a little longer than other posts.

Yeah, I'm really happy that I found her and love her style. If you want to know more about or read some of her posts, go over to http://www.nicoleeddy.com or follow her on Bloglovin.


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One Day in Hamburg - Where to go when you're around

Have you ever been to Hamburg? Well, there are places that are definitely worth a visit. So in this series - I will show you some places to stop by on your short trip or even when you're living here. These spots will be awesome places for photography, videography and spending quality time in the best ways possible. They will vary from urban over lifestyle to nature have everything you need for one day in Hamburg. Each post will be part of a day in Hamburg, concluding to the whole day in three or four posts.

So as any of the posts that introduce new stuff this is rather boring and short. But come back on Wednesday to read a bit more on the changes that come to the blog at this time of the year. Until then, repect your spots and keep exploring.

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Hamburg Longboard Spots - Hamburg HafenCity

So this week, I went for a tour through the youngest district of Hamburg: the HafenCity. So pretty much the HarbourCity, doesn't sound that nice, does it? While being the youngest district it is also the most discussed one. Billions of Euros wasted for building the Elbphilharmonie from 2007 probably until 2017. The controversy on the modern architecture destroying the flair of the district.

Within a hundred meters there is a change from the left picture - the old look of the district - to the right one with the new buildings. Each of the styles is beautiful in its own way but it wasn't the best idea to put them right besides each other.

                                                                         


The HafenCity is on the top list of Hamburg's most expensive districts. With a wide offer of high class shops and designer stores there come the matching apartments. For example the penthouse of the Marco Polo Tower - as seen on the picture below - right at the riverside with an awesome view over the whole harbor and the city. At least that's what I guess as I've never had the opportunity to get up there. Also it is located right next to the Unilever headquarters and the Cruise Center where many cruise ships start their journey.

Still I can't decide what I like better - old or new architecture. Let me know about your opinion on this controversy. And as always: Protect your spots and keep exploring.

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Alien Post - Guardians Of The Galaxy

Welcome to awesome! Long awaited, highly praised and watched millions of times already for sure. Guardians of the Galaxy is a strong competitor for movie of the year, but for some it is the the movie of the decade - or even the movie they waited for since their childhood.

Based on the latest Guardians Of The Galaxy comic-series this is one of the movies that let you slip into the Marvel universe quite easily. Although there is plenty of background to find in several comic series that tell storylines close to the one in the movie with different characters and twists, the movie tells enough to make you understand how each of the members has their own background.

Awesome storytelling: CHECK.

Let's go on to the humor. Sometimes a little awkward in terms of just dumb jokes, but on the other hand the characters are just hilarious. I mean, a tree? They all just make you think "You serious?!". So, not all jokes actually work on you but the quote is quite high. Of course, one got to let oneself in for it. You can make any joke bump off yourself by just telling it's too dumb. But this movie will make you laugh a lot.

Awesome humor: CHECK.

The view on Knowhere. The panorama of Xandar. VFX and world designers make this movie also a great event for those of you who like to get amazed by fictional worlds and places. The 3D effects are a little lame in the over all view. In the beginning there are some shots that just provoke you to hate this 3D madness that evolved of the last years. Shooting through different layers of stone formations for example just makes the stones look like cardboard props. Still there are so many scenes that remind you of the high professionalism of the team behind the movie and the theory that is still used in videography.

Awesome quality: CHECK.

So, if you have the possibility to watch the movie in the original version, do it. I watched both, the original version and the German dubbed one. And as always. the former is the better.

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Blogs To Read - Jennypurr

© Jen Carrington

May I introduce: Jen Carrington. With her blog Jennypurr, that was founded in March 2013, she is currently reaching more than 10,000 readers every month. When she isn't working on her daily post for Jennypurr she has plenty of writing to do outside the blog as she works as a freelance writer and also as an editor for A Little Opulent, an online lifestyle magazine. After graduating from Lancaster University last summer she figured out that she would concentrate on online content 

creation.

She divides her posts into four categories: Life, blogging, freelancing and beauty. Sometimes these categories can't be kept apart - that's what happens when you write what you think and want to instead of sticking to the rules - but she doesn't struggle to keep the blog's structure upright.

Still, Jen does not work only with passion but also with professionalism. She actually keeps the business woman and the girl in her early twenties in perfect balance. On the one hand her posts are advice on everyday life but never without at least a chunk of help on workflow and evolving yourself and your writing.

Her most important message - in my words - is still: Don't do it the best way possible, do it your way. If you want to learn more about what she means by that, need advice on freelancing and blogging and still want to get updated on the best in beauty, just stop by at http://www.jennypurr.co.uk/ or visit her on Bloglovin.

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