Get your towels ready - it's getting hot!

Summer is officially here. Shanghai has basically two seasons. There is winter: roughly from end of November to early April and then there is summer: basically the rest of the time.

Currently it's spring I would say, that lasts like 2 weeks, it's pretty summerish already. Again I won't really complain about that, because the summer is actually pretty good I find. But holy bat mobile is the winter here horrible.

I am from Germany, or to be more specific The Erzgebrige, that is where Elves, Wolves, Vikings and Gnomes and though it's not Novosibirsk it can be easy -20 Degrees Celsius - yeah, that is cold, but we still manage to run around in the security and warmth of our homes in T-shirts. Flats are insulated properly and almost every place that is not outside is actually enjoyable. According to this cute website it is also Santa's Workshop in Germany.

Shanghai is not that cold, technically that is. The coldest it gets here is around 0 Degrees Celsius, sometimes a tiny bit colder, it might even snow a day or two, but man, the humidity and the non-insulation of buildings, the gaps between windows and the wall they are installed in, the slits under doors and no central heating make this a tough time to be around for. It's pretty bleak and all the grey comes to shine (or be dusty) and there is hardly a place to go back and replenish your body in a T-shirt or less.

Let me wipe those crocodile tears of fake complaint away. It is nice and hot now and I prefer that over the bone chilling cold any day. Yesterday in training I think I lost a good 2 Kilos of water (got it back in refreshing beer afterwards). So this is where I wanted to go with this post. Don't be afraid to sweat, to put in some work, to do more, to step out of your comfort zone. Starting to blog again was damn hard, it took me about a year of planning, but it doesn't get any traction until you actually start to write and stop listening to those whiny violins and devils that tell you to plan even more, it will never be good enough and that there are more important things at that very moment. You gotta break a sweat and take the heat or cold for a while (whichever one you dislike) and put yourself out there.

For a good mix of hot and cold and the heat/intensity of human energy and channeling rage and the depressive state of New York in the 80s that gave life to the Hardcore Culture, please do check out this awesome documentary about New York Hardcore (via Nerdcore). Even if you have nothing to do with this kind of music, check it out, it's well worth seeing (side note: my girlfriend sat trough it and learned a thing or two).

Tomorrow Killswitch Engage will be here and I will be there to see those guy rocking (again!), for the fourth time I think. They are amazing, always balancing on that blade between hardcore and catchy pop melodies.

Have a taste:

[embed]https://youtu.be/HANCzu70us4[/embed]

"All that we suffer through leads to determination. The trials we all go through gives us the strength to carry on. Something within us burns, desire feeds the will to live. A reason to believe I will see redemption."

In the end it all comes around again. Something within us burns, it's that burn you need to feel alive.