Björn Seidel

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The Fans and Critics are the problem

We are the problem... Really, unlike with video games, where fans keep calling publishers out on their bullcrap and someone like the amazing CD Projekt Red comes out of the woodwork and delivers on all accounts without aggravating (what I believe) a single consumer, with the grandious Witcher 3 (so

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The Blues and Winter Shanghai

Winter is unfortunately still not over. Today the mercury rose to 18 degrees (celsius, the other one I can't wrap my head around), thing is, it drops close to zero at night and it feels even worse. As a matter of fact winter here used to be much

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Dinner for one or how to lose a superhero

This is something about a hero of mine. A person that I spend most of the New Year's Eves of my life with, a person that shaped me more than any comic superhero ever has and will be. My beloved Grandma! Sometimes life hits harder than Superboy'

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Periphery in Shanghai or how to not handle a bad situation

Let me start this with: I was stoked! We don't get a lot of great bands here. Let alone such a highly technical and mass appealing band like Periphery. I came across them years ago while writing reviews for a now unfortunately discontinued German e-zine. It was a

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The man that brought me to China

I wanted to become a Shaolin monk when I was 12 to 14'ish... No jokes! I have written about this before, but I would like to take some time and elaborate a bit more. I'm from a little town in the Ore Mountains in Germany and

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Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the year of the cock! Or rooster or chicken if you are into superstition - here is everything you need to know and some made-up numbers. One could almost think this is a holiday blog now. So what is going on at that time in Shanghai? Not

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Some updates to stay updated about stuff and art

For the technical people among you and those interested this site runs now on Wordpress 4.7 - it's an amazing platform and I wish more people would blog. By the way, my friend does blog, in German and it's short stories that make you think

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Have a good start of the year and here is something to do that with:

Happy new year to everyone! This is a little piece to start the year off right. Blogging was good from me in 2016. I blogged regularly and am happy with what I wrote about and every pair off eyes that sees this and takes something away from it, even if

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Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Ha! Cheesy! You now have that song stuck in your head. It's that time of the year where I miss Germany the most. I think it is like the 4th Christmas in China or so out of 6. Not so much this time around. Let me elaborate why

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There is smart and there is stupid smart.

I don't mean stupidly smart - that exists too. I mean stupid but/and smart. Lately I enjoyed the whole second season of Ash vs Evil Dead and that is an example of stupid smart. One could say it is goofy, dumb, funny and groovy and one would

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Gaming is good...

... everything other than being passive is. I haven't posted that regularly recently. I usually need a bit of anger or something that bothers me to write. There is less of that in my life now. Lifting my Macbook onto the desk that I use basically only for writing

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Being comfortable in uncomfortable positions

Life lessons with yours truly... This headline is not invented by me, nor would I claim so, but it was swirling around in my head in recent years. Over and over again. Not to credit someone wrongly, but I think the first time I heard something to that degree was

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Nothing about Trump.

Really. So here is the conversation I had with the friendly cashier in the alldays (a tidbit of information about the 'convenient' store market) down in our building, after I came home from work: Ayi (convenient store employee/Aunty): Ah! Hello, you just finished work? Me: Nah, haven&

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My The Walking Dead Rant

I'm starting to write this 24 hours after watching Season 7 Episode 1 of The Walking Dead: The Day Will Come When You Won't Be. So major spoilers ahead, but you should read anyway, because it's not that important! There will also be swearing

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Sometimes things just work!

This is the first blogpost ever that I write completely on my iPad. I really don't know how or why but even without a VPN, the Wordpress app is working and jumping the great firewall. So here is a test run. Hyperlinks are a pain in the ass

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I'm no Tim Ferris...

...but at the point of writing this I am deep into 72 hours of being really healthy. Shanghai can be a bit stressful. There is honking cars, subpar driving everywhere (one should know that my primary means of transportation is a bicycle) - so I have to deal with scooters,

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I get it! You vape.

Just wanting to share this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkm8Hteeh6M Not only is H3H3 my favorite youtuber (I never had that before), he is also super funny and 95% of the time on point! There is so much good material and I always look forward to another

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Re-burn

Changing jobs recently and generally having a lot of changes, some things become clear. 'Life is what you make of it.' I came back from Thailand, the land of smiles, the land where I might or might not belong, but it was rejuvenating. Leaving China for a bit

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The Upside Down and Other Magical Experiences

Let's talk some magic here and how I started experimenting . What's going on in the upside down. So right of the bat, you can tell that I have been watching Stranger Things - and wow, it is brilliant. If you are an eighties kid and love

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Marvel versus DC

I am a fan of both. Really! What a time to be alive. This deserves kind of a lead in and I am not talking about the comics, but maybe let's do that for a moment: I grew up for 6 years in the German Democratic Republic -

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Ohrwurm of the week 30/2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e42u_KQj20o Being a year older than yesterday. This song encapsulate everything I love about music, hardcore and the people I hold dear! Listen, rock, give your best! A Ghost Inside suffered from a terrible car crash, they are still recovering but will never

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You know where it is at? Zhabei, man!

This is a good one! Look I get it, if you have been to Shanghai and you want to know where it is at and you got the cute little Lonely Planet recommendation list, then you have seen it. Zhabei is not even in those 9 top picks... You know

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On traveling

So here is the thing about traveling and me: I don't wike it. Really, I don't really like it. Growing up in Eastern Germany and pretty poor, I sometimes heard: 'You know what, why travel to other countries when spot X in Germany just a

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The age of (super) heroes

This year there is a lot of dying going on. The 27 club did not get any new members unless you are familiar with Viola Beach (which I am not). David Bowie, Prince, Muhammad Ali, Lemmy Kilmister, Bud Spencer (Carlos Pedersoli) and Alan Rickman are no more - may they

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Relaunching this blog and myself

It's been 5 years in China by now, a bit more actually. It's been a weight that was fluctuating for the longest time. It's been constant food from restaurants for lunch and a loss of adventure. It's been a loss of healthy