About me / blog policy

“Why is this blog called ‘starfishskies’?” –  One of my old ideas for stories/novels included the concept of halfminds, people who are somewhere in the middle between rational scientists (‘minds’) and artists/dreamers (‘arts‘). They are the ones considered dangerous because of their creative intelligence and the resulting tendency to ask uncomfortable questions about next to everything, be it politics, economics, science,  religion, or random everyday stuff. Their symbol is the starfish, because in its shape it connects ocean and sky, while the ocean itself again is a mirror for the sky. So it’s about straddling opposites and creating beauty from the impossible. I’m a halfmind.

I’m creative, but no professional, neither in writing nor in photography or singing, acting or whatever; I just enjoy trying many things. If you want to see some of my stuff, click the links further down at the bottom.

Like most people I like beautiful things, but I’m still trying to figure out what this quality called “beautiful” is to me. It can be found in science for example, I think. Maybe I’m not that brilliant when it comes to science, but I’ve always been a curious person and liked biology and physics in school. I’m curious as in “How does this work? What will happen when I do this to that thing? Why is fact X like that?”, and I love learning in a playful manner.

I live in an apartment with the Nerd, my geeky partner in life, linguistic, and technical discussions.

Location: continental Europe

Degree: B.A. and M.A. in Linguistics, with a minor in psychology (B.Sc.)

Job: Currently working in an entry-level job related to the field of natural language processing and machine learning. Used to work as a student assistant at university and for a few months taught language classes.
At this point it’s open whether I’ll go back and try to move further on in an academic career with some exciting research along the way; or some day find a job that satisfies my love of creative thinking and learning many different new things. If you want to support my creative journey, check out my Patreon below!

I’m currently taking the first few steps towards publishing poetry in other places; the pseudonym will appear here when relevant.

OS of choice: Ubuntu Mate (linux household)

Writes ugly code and pretty poetry, propagates succulents, and talks about weird science fiction. Sometimes wearing white, sometimes wielding a sword.

My other stuff on the internet:

https://www.patreon.com/starfishskies (if you want to support me in exchange for a bit of bonus content/early access and the likes)

www.starfishskiesphotography.wordpress.com

www.unicornandpegasus.wordpress.com (blog about novels and stories by Anne McCaffrey, under construction / on hiatus)

www.kayanya.deviantart.com (Not updated in a long time, mostly a documentation of art and writing from my first years after leaving home.)

Instagram: @starfishskies 

YouTube: Starfish’s Snail TV (rarely updated at the moment)

Mastodon: starfishskies@mastodon.social

Also still on Twitter as @starfishskies (passive)

All photos unless otherwise indicated (by referring link and/or name of artist) are my property. If you want to use one of them as a wallpaper on your private computer, go ahead (but I’d still be happy about a comment so I know you like and use it). Otherwise: reblog/link (from photo blog: repost whole posts/portfolio pages only, never single pictures), don’t re-upload anything without my permission. Always give proper credits and provide a visible link. Don’t directly repost any pictures containing a person’s face; reblog/link to the whole post instead. If you would like to use one of my photos as a story illustration or as header or background for any kind of blog or homepage, please ask before you do so! I’m open for collaborations :) If you don’t ask me beforehand and tell me later I will most likely ask you to take it down, depending on my mood, so please, ask. Don’t ever upload my photos on facebook, tumblr, and the likes without permission. You can link to the posts instead.

Summonable Address

If you need to send me a physical letter for legal or business purposes, you can address it to:

starfishskies
c/o Block Services
Stuttgarter Str. 106
70736 Fellbach

Please note that this address can’t receive packages or artworks, as all incoming mail will be scanned and forwarded to me via e-mail.