Wednesday, September 20, 2006

 

Kudos, Mr. Gleeson, this is quite entertaining.

http://mrbadak.com/index.php/2006/06/youre-beautiful-song-dissected/

Make sure you listen to the audio file that is linked on the page there. Its quality.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

 

Is it true?

Is it really true? Do men in Europe know how to dress? I try to be a little bit careful what I wear, choosing things that are comfortable but hopefully not too tacky. But I hear all the time "European men dress so well." So, I sometimes notice and wonder if I could see myself starting to dress a bit more that way. I can't...sorry to disappoint, ladies.

Guys, I don't care what country you're from, you need to grow up and make a decision. You can wear pants. You can wear shorts. You can even wear those shorts that are convertible pants, with the zippered on legs. But you can't have them simultaneously.

Silly europeans, tricks are for kids. And Capris are for girls.

I would like to provide to you an example of something. Imagine a guy wearing tennis shoes, black socks, khakis, a hideous plaid shirt, a tie that did not match at all, and a denim jacket. Did something happen? I'm not up on fashion, but is that honestly ok??

OK - In all fairness, I do have to admit that I like european suits suits a lot better. I feel good when I feel more "european dressed" in a dressed-up sort of way, but there are some downright offensive examples against european men's ability to dress.

Monday, September 18, 2006

 

Alternative Location

I wrote this originally to accompany the photo on my blog for today but for a couple reasons decided I would prefer to share it only on this site.

I want to thank you all, my friends, for your encouragement. The last two and a half months have been awesome. If not always pleasant, relaxing and "easy", they have been GREAT! I have learned quite a bit and grown, too. I have always been afraid of failing, of trying something and having it not work out the way I wanted. I was scared out of my mind that I would try to stay in Europe and I wouldn't be able to do it. Financial, social, and time pressure all woke me before 7am every single day. I was scared. Sometimes I still am. But because you guys encouraged me, I feel like I have made great strides toward not letting fear control me. Everything isn't completely fixed yet, but I feel now like I have at least given it my best. I won't wonder in 6 months, "What if I had just tried?"

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs
even though checkered by failure than to take rank with these poor spirits
who neither enjoy much or suffer much. Be wise, they live in the gray twilight
that know not of victory, nor defeat. Nor true sorrow nor true love."
--Theodore Roosevelt

I may succeed, I may fail. Thanks for helping me out of the twilight.

One of my favorite barenaked ladies songs happens to relate to the topic also and I copied the lyrics below.

"You can always get it right next time, next time
You can always get it right next time

You can count on me to mess it up
You can count on me to let you down again
And in time you'll see that I'm your only friend

CHORUS (x2)

Comfort in community obliterated
Given opportunity I hesitated
Even my humility's humiliated

CHORUS (x2)
Next time, next time

When you die they make a list of every love you never kissed
Of each regret and each mistake
Every choice you'll fail to make
Oh well...
Oh well...
Oh well...

It's a shame I have to wait until the ending
Everything I've yet to break is surely bending
Every vow I ever take is just pretending
That this mess I make is worth defending"

I feel I have gotten too personal on my photo blog lately. I do that because I want to show people my photos. It happens that most people who visit that site are also friends I like to share my "blog" comments with, but not all of them are and so I will post this here. For example, the guy who interviewed me on Mathworks wanted my URL so he could check out my photo blog and for obvious reasons, I didn't give it to him. Plus, there is someone here in Germany who doesn't know about this blog with whom I am really frustrated because she is letting fear control her right now. Its driving me nuts. (Aarrrgh - for all those who know that joke...)

In other news, I find it comical that my roommate sneaks out of the apartment in the middle of the night to go sleep at someone else's place and thinks closing his door will make me think he was here the whole time...

Saturday, September 16, 2006

 

Storytime

Yesterday, I went to the German city of Aachen to have an interview with Mathworks. The job sounded extremely and completely awesome and I think I would have really loved it and been good at it, except that I don't have the technical background I should have in order to do the job. Which sucks, because I would love to.

So after the interview, I walked around town a little bit, pointing my camera at things. There was a news crew doing one of those reports they do sometimes. There was a camera man, a microphone man, and a reporter. The reporter was carrying around a map and asking people questions. I was very entertained by watching the Germans react to his approach; all scared and helpless-looking. Anyway, they asked a guy who was sitting near me the questions: "Why is Europe called 'Europe'?" I was very curious and tried to hear the guy's answer, but he was pointing his voice away from me and talking in jumbly-german I was having trouble understanding. It must have been good, though, because the reporter replied with a huge grin and the question "But what does that have to do with Europe?" I caught the answer to that... "Nothing." Then the reporter told him, but I didn't hear/understand (that's still a thin line for me in German). Then he asked the gentleman "Why is America called 'America'?" Instead of rambling this time, the gentleman just said he didn't know. America is called America, according to this reporter, because of Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian cartographer and writer who was one of the first to boldly claim that the land we now know as America was, in fact, NOT Asia. Well, he didn't tell us all that, just that it was because of Amerigo Vespucci.

Being the curious cat that I am, I went up to the crew after they finished talking to him and said "I didn't hear what you said. Why is Europe called 'Europe'?" He told me that it was because there was a princess who gave a bunch of land to someone and then it was called Europe. But I didn't think that made much sense because at no point in history as I have ever learned it, was Europe under control of one empire (except mostly under the Holy Roman Empire) and even then, no one gave "Europe" to anyone as a gift. That just sounds ridiculous. So far, the web has provided one solution that it comes from eurus (greek for broad) and ops (greek for face) and thus combines into something like "The great face of the world". Also, Europa was a Princess in Greek mythology. Zeus, being the rampant breeder that he is, turned himself into a bull and got her to ride on his back. (First in a non-sexual way, but then the lights went out and who knows what happened.) Zeus swam to the Isle of Crete and made sweet, sweet lovin to Europe and she bore him three sons. Wikipedia can tell you more. But what does the web really know about it anyway. The point is, after that, the reporter asked me "Do you know why America is called America?" and the camera man pointed the camera at me... I told him I heard him explain it to someone else and he asked further, "Did you know it before then?" I had to admit I didn't. Then, I got really embarrassed because he asked me "And what country are you from?" Very ashamed, I said "I'm from the USA. I could tell you the origins of many of our state's names, but not America." Besides the fact that I was breaking the European stereotype that Americans can only speak english, I felt really embarrassed. Then I realized that most of the Germans didn't know why Europe was called Europe, so I didn't feel quite as bad...

So if you are watching ARD 1, especially in the area of Aachen/Köln(Cologne) and you see an American who doesn't know the origin of the name "America", then there is a good chance its me.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

 

WHAT??




HOLY SHIT!???
Facebook has a new look. Its RSS-feed style. I came across this one while I was browsing my feeds and freaked out! When the hell did I get engaged? Then I rememebered I have a facebook friend named Kyle Schroeder. Apparently, he skipped that sketchy "dating" middle ground.

While I'm here, I'd like to comment that the new facebook feed thing is not so great. I don't really need to know every time Dana makes a new friend or every time Katie's taste in music or movies changes. I do, however, like the facebook aversion to relationships. "____ is single!" has a heart next to it and "_____ is no longer single." has two pieces of a heart next to it.

An update about a friend who adds a new friend whom I don't know is not useful to me. Finding out that a friend added another one of my friends could be cool. Even cooler would be seeing when people break off their friendships. I would subscribe to the global feed of that.... because it's bullshit.

Not long ago, a person I know was going after a girl. And the girl liked him but had a boyfriend. So she made him keep his distance to "Extremely good friends who did everything together including sleeping". This guy would tell me about 2x a week that their status changed. Never were they 'together' but he would tell me in a very, very serious face, "I had the worst day of my life. Katie and I aren't friends anymore." The first day, this was kinda sad. As much because their 'friendship' is one that seems to be at a 3rd grade level involving the exchange of lollipops and blowjobs for the title of 'friend' and also because he was really sad. When he told me the next day, extremely excited, that they were friends again and it was the best day of his life, I found it extremely hard to keep a straight face. I told him the laughing was because I was sooooo excited for him. When it continued like that for a couple weeks, I really struggled. Seeing a list of 'cancelled' and 'renewed' "friendships" on facebook would be hilarious to me.

Then they can add the supplement to the relationship basis. You know how when you add a friend, they ask you how you know the person? Then when you end your friendship, you can say things like 'I caught _____ giving ______ to ______." Or, "_______ cheated at backyard football. He rushed after only 3 seconds. OUR FRIENDSHIP IS OVER, _______!"

Then! You could choose the duration of the fight. "I would like to end my friendship with _____ for ___ (hours/days/weeks/months/years/until they give me back my _____/until they say ______ on my wall/...)."

Sometimes people are so childish....

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