Sep 08
30,09,08
I haven't heard crickets in years, but they seem to be abundant here
in the country. Kind of relaxing...
I have a cold...
30,09,08
16:00 - Bonanza is on...Might be the one US show I haven't seen
dubbed into German.
28,09,08
I am well taken care of. My nan is doing laundry for me everyday
without any input from me. I've had Mexican food twice, gone to
several McMenamins, been exposed to 'Are you smarter than a fifth
grader' and been annoyed to no end by the americans in
my general vicinity...In fact 2,0 told me that when he sets foot in
the states he gets a little dizzy...I got a little annoyed, and I'm
going to get that dizzy feeling when I arrive home (DE).
27,09,08
all the money here is one color, and one size...how quaint...
they should think about doing the same with the coins as well...
24,09,08 23:44
OK, so I went outside to the normal 'non secure' airport area, and
it was in fact a bit busier than the highly secure area I'm in
now...what was really great was when I wanted to come back into the
secure area the dude asked where I was from, where I was going, and
then stamped my passport (which is great cuz you don't normally get
stamps inside the euro zone)...So basically I WAS LET INTO THE INNER
SECURITY AREA WITHOUT MY BAG BEING CHECKED!!!!
I may have spotted a flaw in this whole airport security system...
I don't make the news I just report it...
I just saw a mouse!!! Schipole is like Konsti except without
people...and I'm going to be sleeping here...Did I mention that 14
hour layovers rock!!!
yes I do feel like Tom Hanks in 'the Terminal'...
note: I am not fond of Tom Hanks, the only two movies I ever liked
that he was in were 'the Terminal' and 'ladykillers'. The latter was
not great because of him no doubt...
OK so I'm sitting in the middle of the airport hallway with my back
to a pillar cuz that's the only place I can find a plug...and the
dude driving the floor cleaner keeps buzzing me...I guess that means
I need to go find an uncomfortable couch to make myself at home
on...good times!!! Tonight is gonna be soooo cool!!!
24,09,08
It's 21:26...I'm sitting in the 4th busiest airport in Europe
basically ALL BY MYSELF. There's a few janitor types and all the
stores and restaurants have closed down. It's so deserted that the
panini shop has just turned up the radio as they are cleaning up...GANGSTAs
PARADISE!!!
So the highlight of last week was a Russian Colleague saying: 'In
germany... everything apple is good!'
Allow me to intepret...'The Germans know how to do tasty apple
treats!!!'
me: genau!!!!
Ok not really the highlight, but it needed to be reprinted... :)
Downloaded another Gogolo Bordello album. Love it love it love it!!!
and 'TV on the Radio'...great!!!!
I have no idea what is popular anywhere, so these might be stupid
comments that everyone has already said 3 years ago...
20,09,08
Words and phrases my colleagues taught me this week and an
important business dinner...
leck mich!
leck dich selbst!
pummelfee...
I'm going to inadvertently get in a fight one of these days... ;)
me randomly yelling kackbratze during an important business dinner
is apparently one of the funniest things ever to the Germans!!! :)
There is some sort of rally/parade going on in paulsplatz...It
sounds like they're singing 'christmus is east LA...'
yeah, gotta learn Italian one of these days...that's the one that's
shaped like a boot right?
Life is hard when you don't get mad you get hurt...
17,09,08
After a year and a half...my heat is working again...Only took 12
hours from when I called the hausmeister (that was all I've needed
to do for the past year and a half)...that was easy...It's another
thing off my proverbial to-do list.
I'm a doer!!!
also took bottles back for the first time since I've been in DE. 6€
worth. Wow!!! That was too easy as well. My to-do list has never
been so small after knocking those two items off...
16,09,08
I just told the story of how David my half brother ordered a coke
for breakfast...I was about 6 at the time and I remember thinking
that was the weirdest thing I had ever seen...it's odd when you
have always done things a certain way (in this case it was ordering
milk for breakfast) and someone comes along with something
completely unexpectedly...
was this a paradigm shift?
15,09,08
Off to the states in a week and a half. Looking very forward to
this...
of late I've been buying a lot of movies that I've never heard of. I
have gotten very lucky with this.I'm able to spot movies that I know
I'll like. I suppose it helps that I havn't heard of them and thus
have no real expectations. If I did I probably wouldn't like them as
much...
In the past few weeks I've bought 'Tideland' which was directed by
Terry Gilliam, and yesterday watched a movie with elijah wood called
'Alles ist erleughtet'...I think the english title was 'everything
is illuminated'. It is about an american who goes on a quest to the
ukraine to track down people in a photo. Starts out being incredibly
funny, then turns into a very sweet, heart wrenching story about the
war. Recommend them both.
The soundtrack for the latter movie was partially composed of a band
called 'Gogol Bordello'. I loved that music. I will be downloading
some soon. In doing a bit of research they were billed as Gypsy
Punk. Fair enough description in my book. They were great!!!
For some reason I also bought the 1967 best foreign picture oscar
winner. A czech movie that was only 3€. Couldn't pass it up. It's
black and white so it must be good...haven't seen it yet. I'll let
you know...
also a David Lynch movie I havn't heard of...got 3 hours to kill???
Also finally made it to Palmengarten yesterday. Was nice and
relaxing. Nice place for a pic-a-nic...
some pics...
and
this is Paul and I attempting to do our impersonation of the emperor
in Return of the Jedi, but it really just looks like we're doing
magic hands or magic fingers or whatever it is...
back to the states in a week and a half...place your orders
quickly...
I finally sent my postcards from Italy this
week...yeah...procrastinators inc...or should I say...yup that's one
more thing off my to-do list...;)
13,09,08
6 and 7....
6) Michael Jackson has never sounded as good as he does when
blasting from a 14 year old turkish kids cell phone
7) Knocking over the garbage can out side of the burger king when
you're 14 and turkish is probably the coolest thing ever...
12,09,08
gee...it's been a while since I've updated...let's see, I have 3
seminal events that are of interest to you dear reader...and two of
them happened in the past 2 hours...
ok 4....
ok 5....
1. I saw someone under 40 at the fish restaurant near my
flat....this was one of those surreal moments for me where you
basically see something so unusual that your head spins and you
realize there is nowhere else in the world that you'd rather be at
that moment...cuz it's weird...
2. I watched 'Leon the Profi'. In the states this was a movie with
Jean Reno titled 'the professional'. The European version was longer
and is better...it's not often that you can watch a movie alone and
cry and laugh out loud during the same 106 minutes. I'll have to
watch again, but this might make my top 20 list of all time
flicks...great movie.
3. A completely countrified version of 'lookin out my back door'.
there's some festival below my flat and it seems they are have live
musicians playing american country music, but Lookin out my back
door takes the cake...
4. I ran out of toilet paper...in retrospect this might not be so
important, but since it just happened today it takes on extra
relevance...I think I just bought 24 rolls last weekend...I think
Matt made a comment once about women eating toilet paper...it's
true...
5. I ate joey's pizza...unlike the last entry, this will be one of
the important events of my year...
OK I just thought of 6.
6. I had an idea for my novel this week. This happened during work (j:
you really don't have a lot to do at work do you?). yes, for those
of you in the know there will be a little person character. I'm
thinking about you Peter Dinklage...
Paul
where did you find a big red candle?
I'm
playing air guitar...
2,0
tries to kiss 1,0...
06,09,08
I love the Guardian (british paper). It's very tabloidy, I
occasionally distrust their fact-checking, but it's well written and
occasionally very funny in the midst of a serious article.
There's a sort of in depth series of stories on Palin. There's a
very short story on her views of guns, along with a picture of her
holding an assault rifle - right next to a picture of Putin holding
an assault rifle. The author made a comment about the two of them
facing off with guns on a bering strait ice flow...followed by a
comment about Dick Cheney killing them both if he was in the
vicinity...It was great.
In a different article they mention abstinence only education and
note that Alaska has the highest per capita instance of chlamydia in
the US...apparently people ARE having sex in Alaska...ah well
life goes on...
04,09,08
I'm glad that I am now on such good terms with my local starbucks
that I can go in and ask them for a glass of lactose free cold milk
for cooking. They gave me a venti size cup for free. :)
My neighbors....tomorrow I'm going to ask them if I can borrow a
cookie..