July 08
27,07,08
Doc, if there was just one thing in that four hour window I should
NOT do...what would you say that would be?
26,07,08
Nice job last night!
Gee, Thanks coach! :)
24,07,08
Two years here and I suddenly have an inkling to go back to the
states...I really want to see my nan one last time.
I should not spend time alone...it's not good for me ;)
so I'm told that some people under 30 have a talent for pressing
flowers (I'm pretty sure you know who you are ;) and I'm pretty sure
you're the only one)...so many comments to make...bloody germans!!!
;)
23,07,08
I'm taking today off to go get my work permit renewed...
I've watched the Producers twice, but still missed the ending. I
think I fell asleep both times.
I managed to fall asleep at 23:00 and then managed to get up at
5...what a great idea!!!
This has to be a sign that I'm getting old right?
I've been here almost 2 years.
20,07,08
I'm not quite sure when or why this happened, but I think I'm the
most popular customer at my starbucks. I get hellos and smiles from
literally everyone that works there (and the semi regular free drink
coupon). It's even now to the point where I get hellos on the street
and I even got a handshake today when I went in (for the second
time).
It's not uncommon to get a handshake here at a restaurant or pub you
are a regular at, but I've never seen an employee shake hands with a
customer in starbucks...next up 'the hip hop shoulder'...my little
slice of americana in Deutschland.
watched Gross Pointe Blank today...I still think it's a great
movie...if I could only find 'Better off dead' in this country then
John Cusack could just retire for me...
...also watched the lads play footy against some Iranians today.
Luckily for all of us the Iranians wanted a game so I didn't have to
play. Also luckily for me is that when the rain started I was able
to head to a cafe while they had to keep playing.
Then dinner at a czech restaurant (note to americans: There is no
such thing as Czechoslovakia).
I'm going to suck on my pixie stick from Euro Disney and watch 'the
producers' now...haven't seen it. I heard it was good. I'm probably
going to be disappointed.
20,07,08
Last night I could actually see my own breath...I am loving this
'summer'. Honestly it's fantastic.
...and Matt I think I'm thinking on a much more macro economic sense
than you...I realize a company can expand their market share through
overseas expansion, new markets etc. (and some organic growth
through population), but I'm talking about 20, 50, 100 years from
now when there are no more borders/tariffs, and people the world
over make the same money for the same jobs etc then what happens?
(besides everyone having 2 cars, wal-marts, 3 TV's, and 3500sq ft
homes...see it's funny cuz...
oh nevermind...)
When all markets are saturated can you accept that my theory will
then be true?
When there are no more new markets, new people, new products, then
the worlds economies stagnate right?
Hopefully we will have discovered leisure time by then and we'll all
work 20 hours a week for the same pay and all pay the same amount
for goods and services...
I just circled back to socialism right?
There is still talk of me playing footy today...another chapter in
the 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' files.
19,07,08
so by 11 I have accomplished everything I had to do this weekend (to
the best of my abilities). I've been to the hardware store, got my
picture taken for my work permit, schlecker, Saturn, Starbucks, and
Hügendubel...yet I don't feel like I've actually done anything.
Could not find any anti mold stuff, shlecker had no toilet paper,
and the Italian coursebook I wanted had to be ordered...
I ended up with 2 DVD's and a book on Italian Verbs (the only
english based Italian learning book they had in stock)....hmmmphh.
right now there's a gay pride party going on in the Römer. I didn't
expect to hear techno as I'm trying to nap.
bump bumpb umpbubmpubmbpubmbpumbpubmp
boom tss boom tss boom tss
IN THE NAVY...you can sail the 7 seas...IN THE NAVY...
you got to show me love....do doo dee doo
17,07,08
ok...so I think my point last night was that IF you can accept that
one business rises only at the same time another business fails (can
anyone dispute this?) can you apply the same logic to people...
'one person gets rich only as another person gets poorer...'
Is this a case for socialism?
Once again I took a stretched conclusion and stretched it even
more...I should really have gone to college and been a professor or
something...instead I'm just stuck making random statements that
confuse people... ;)
thanks to matt for keeping me awake today (I honestly didn't know
that you studied economics before switching to the cop-out degree of
psychology). we managed to unseriously discuss the CPI (americans
tinker with it to make it look 'better'), deficit spending, printing
of money by govt's, the sub prime housing crisis, how long the
average bill is in circulation in the states, suppression of
publication of money supply statistics, or inflation
indices...discontinuation of M3 money supply statistics, Ron Paul,
hyperinflation, me playing goal keeper on sunday, BBQ's, who is
actually benefiting from western governments running deficits,
George Bush wrecking the US economy, food prices etc.
....OK when I say discuss I mean me copying and pasting articles
from learned (please read and pronounce that as learn-ED, then
you'll be like william F buckley) people.
Tomorrow we discuss whether the tax rate matters as the government
gets a small slice of every person to business or business to
business transaction....If you can accept that argument does it even
matter what the tax rate is, as eventually the government will get
100% (or is it 1,000,000,000%) of every dollar it prints back in the
form of taxes...
...and Matt I still maintain that food prices as a percentage of
household income (ok I didn't say that last night, but taking
inflation etc into account I think we can agree on that right?) has
fallen. It's certainly much cheaper to produce food as a
multinational corporation than it was for Mr Ingalls to make a field
of corn 100 years ago (ok a vague little house on the prairie
comment...sweet).
...and they pass that savings onto me because they aren't into
profits...
wha!?!?!?!
Ok I may have lost this argument but only until you realize that the
previously mentioned economics student is really more interested in
stuff like this:
select distinct column_a,
(select count * from table_1 as table_2 where table_1.column_a <=
table_2.column_a)
from table_1
you may have lost all credibility with that one mate...
you're almost on par with stephanie who bought and sold my trust for
a mere 25€.
16,07,08 part II
random unthought out collection of thoughts for the day...aka more
conflusion from me...
Could you put a monetary value on
everything in the world?
Does it fluctuate as a collection of inanimate objects becomes
something more valuable than the sum of its parts...
...if a must have item is just replacing another must-have item (as
TV replaced books, and computers replaced TV's, cars replace bikes
etc.) is the rise of one company (and it's stock etc.) always at the
expense of another company's fall?
...and population growth must be accounted for here because as there
are more people there is a bigger market for 'stuff'...how much of
inflation is accounted for by population growth?
...if everyone has x amount of 'stuff' and x amount of 'currency'
aren't we all just trading our stuff and currency to each other for
more or less stuff and currency?
...prices fall over time allowing us to buy more stuff for less
currency...
...can I assume then that rich people are smart and poor people are
stupid?
this is probably some 500 year old theory by some genius, but I was
just pondering this at work today...which must be a sign that I
don't have much work at the moment. :)
...and...
if someone thinks up a genius idea in complete isolation from
someone else who thought up the same genius idea (thus not getting
credit for it) can they still be considered a genius?
I'm sure history is littered with this type of situation...I'm just
not well read enough to know it...
above is precisely why I will never be an author...Stream of
consciousness had its day eh?
16,07,08
Saffa casually used the word 'serieses'
the other day...truly I'm glad at least some of my friends are
native english speakerers.
went to Mona's bday party last
night and since Eric (the sock pooper) wasn't there his fiancée
(that's mrs 2.0 to the rest of us) felt obligated to re-enact the
spanish inquisition...
I wasn't expecting the
Spanish Inquisition...
"Nobody
expects the spanish inquisition...Amongst
our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless
efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the pope, and nice red
uniforms!"
I may have ruined them on men by my
open and frank answers. aka. doing my part to end idealism and
naiveté among americas youths. :)
How did I end up over cynical and hopelessly
romantic at the same time...Irony really is a dead scene.
Most interesting was the other american girls face which was
constantly alternating between confused and accusing...
Lloyd Bentsen: "I was at the
spanish inquisition...this is no spanish inquisition..."
stephanie: 'you're
nothing if not dark'
and
'I think there's a repressed writer
in there...I'm sure if I looked on your computer amongst all the
p0rn, music and movies I would find a couple of short stories on
there...'
Title of the book I'm now inspired
to write:
'I changed every name in this book
except for joe squires'
Sorry, I checked...no short or long
stories of any sort to be found...
it's time for my monthly cleaning...ugh!
13,07,08
Mojo seems to have gone missing...
It's hard to build a house without opposable thumbs....
I won't know what that ridiculous statement means in 3 weeks...
11,07,08
So Thursday was a language day..I was asked by the german colleagues
how they were perceived by the americans. Korinthenkacker came up again...I
had to then explain the use of the word 'anal' to them.
Korinthenkacker definition:
raisin-pooper
nit-picker
hair-splitter
fusspot
This was brought on by them saying to me 'die spinnen die amis'.
somehow I was actually able to translate that without help: 'the
americans are crazy'. I apologized on behalf of 'my people' and
quantified (?) it by saying that we aren't all that way...
also learned Deutsch meaning of 'pop'
once you pop you can't stop.
some girl - to me who was sweating profusely at the
time: Are you hot?
me: my mom says I'm handsome
girl: you are!
see it's funny cuz...
oh nevermind...
05,07,08
The airport....where all proverbial and literal journeys commence...
so everything I typed about the language in my last was wrong...I think the
smallness of my dictionary caused them to put words together that
aren't quite exactly the same thing...I guess Italian is not as
sexist as I first thought...I'm not editing it of course because I
like to read my first impressions of a topic later....
They aren't the alps either...it's the apuane
alps...which is a separate chain completely...and the Med is more
like a kilometer (1000m - for the yanks) away from the office at
least.
the whole last entry was a waste ;)
The annual company party was last night. Hung out with the two
polish guys. They were quite funny and friendly..At one point one of them
re-enacted a whole monty python sketch by
himself (complete with old lady british accent). simply
magical...they were cool....
There was a pool and it was quite funny to see the italians frolic
like a bunch of little kids in it...
Only italians could turn a 4 letter word into a 5 syllable word....
CH-EEE-AAAAAHHH-OOOOWWWW-eh (ciao)...this might be even more amazing
than the german MmmmmmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaAAAAAAAaaaaannnnn as described
by matt.
today went to the town of Lucca...It was a medeival town with a
complete wall around it. the wall is still intact and the town is
absolutely beautiful. I only had a couple hours there, but it is on
my to do list for when I go back...
I had lunch at the first place I saw inside Lucca. It so happened
that it was an 'American Restaurant and Wine Bar'...Whilst waiting
for food I looked around and figured that all you need to call
yourself an 'American Restaurant' are some Beatles posters
(WTF!!!!), Muhammad Ali Posters, and Marilyn Monroe Posters. There
were many more Beatles posters than anything else.
My english is continually getting worse...I actually used the word
'quitted' in an email last week...I didn't even notice until I
finished the sentence then had to reread it cuz I knew something was
wrong...
Now the fact that I thought 'quitted' and then went ahead and typed
it is a bad sign...I suspect if I spend more time in Italy this
trend will continue. :)
Will put the pics on the Italy page...
04,07,08
Happy Birthday Amerika!
Part of a speech by Frederick Douglass...
"Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I
hear the mournful wail of millions!...To him, your celebration is a
sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national
greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and
heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence;
your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and
hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious
parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception,
impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would
disgrace a nation of savages."
03,07,08
This really is one of the most beautiful areas I've ever been
too...From the office the sea is about 400 meters away, and you can
see what I think are the Italian Alps...
amazing...I think I could really get used to this...
there seems to be some inherent chauvinism in the italian
language...i.e. the male version of a word and the female version of
the word imply different things...this is interesting, but here's an
example...
English word: allegiance
italian male form: fedeltà
italian female form: obbedienza
Now isn't there a big distinction (in english) between fidelity and
obedience? Doesn't one imply a choice (fidelity) and the other
implies no choice (obedience)?
It's just funny that's all...
Obviously I've been killing time with my english-italian dictionary
while eating dinner alone... :)
I think I've made it 4 pages into the 'A's.
and it's also an assumption on my part that fedeltà would translate
to fidelity, but this is (for me) why Italian would be pretty easy
to learn. Once the rhythm of the language is down and I can tell
where one word ends and one begins it should be cake - when I first
hear a language it is hard to tell where the words start and
end...it all sort of runs together.
02,07,08
Italy day 5...
Searching for the Italian Jan Delay...
If I had just left the blog entry it would have been a good,
typically vague entry on this page, but since I feel like I want to
chat and I'm lonely (if you've never been on a business trip
to a country where you don't speak the language
you can't possibly relate) I will continue...
I won't be bothered to explain who Jan Delay is...that's why god
invented google...
I've heard way more Italian music on the Italian radio than I hear
German music on German radio...are the Italians more patriotic than
the Germans are?
I've gotten lots of nice texts this week...maybe I read too much
into them, but it's nice to feel missed...
01,07,08
Italy day 4...
apparently every occasion is an occasion to wear heels in italy....going
shopping, going to the beach, playing sports....etc..
here's an example of driving in italy...
I was on a 4 lane road today (two in each direction) and on the
sides of both roads cars are parked (with no space between the
second lane and the cars parked on the side). It basically ends up
that the cars driving drive over the divider line (a lot of roads
like this don't even bother with dividing lines) because you have
doors opening on the parked cars on the right side of the road,
bicycles on the right, scooters on the left and the occasional car
passing going the other way moving into what should be the left
lane...as a result (I guess this can be considered driving
defensively) you end up sort of merging to the middle of the two
lanes to let all the chaos ensue around you without consequence.
It's sort of a beautiful thing cuz you can still pass the slow
moving cars without much threat....
the beauty, art and chaos of driving in italy...I'm not scared
anymore you just have to actually pay attention when you drive...in
the states they just widened the lanes such that you don't even have
to pay attention when you drive (make it easy for the lowest common
denominator...aka. the stupid people...)...in europe you have to
drive actively...if someone dies then they deserved it...in
the states if someone dies then get a lawyer...
I'm going to learn more Italian in a week of being here then i
learned deutsch living in Deutschland for a year...it's quite
easy...
in fact it's very cute the way the italians put a hard e sound at
the end of most words when they don't speak much english...except
words that actually end with a silent E...those they manage to leave
off...the stereo-typical italian accent speaking english is not
really an exaggeration...I love listening to it...
don't ask an italian to spell M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
01,07,08
I was thinking today about different cultures and the perceptions
that go along with that. It's still funny to me that people treat
other people better or worse based solely on their nationality
without even knowing that person. I think I've seen this everywhere
I've ever been. It's funny though that I think people are nicer to
me or want to be my friend just cuz I'm american...(like
americans automatically don't want to be a friend to a mexican....are
you a mexican or a mexican't) So I started
thinking about the pre conceived notions that go along with each
country...and all I can come up with that americans abroad are
famous for is being loud, obnoxious, and ignorant (at this point I'd
like to say that I've been told many times that I'm not a typical
american)...(at this point I'd like to add that I have on many
occasions - ok regularly - been loud, obnoxious, and ignorant).
...all I can come up with is that the non-yanks think we're all
actors, movie stars or both...so they want to hang on/out to/with
that...
apparently Jared Leto is trying to sing...I saw the video with the
sound off, so I don't know if he can actually sing, but I dislike it
on principle...hello poseur...put on some more eyeliner jerk!!!
typical video...MTV go away...I'm boycotting you as well...but
seriously what happens when the whole world is watching the same 10
videos on MTV at the same time...this is where the worlds culture
will come from in 100 years...the world is flat and small...
this somehow all comes down to americans stealing...erm
terrorizing... no...liberating...no...raping...uh...pillaging...ahem...ethnically
cleansing...I mean,
populating the largest chunk of North America in less than 200
years...the concept of populations existing for thousands of years
in near isolation does not register with them, so they don't get
that cultures existed for any length of time...manifest destiny and
stuff....
if matt had written this it would have been well thought out and
actually made the point I was attempting to formulate, but since
it's me...well...draw your own conflusions...
I just made up the word conflusion...I'm not going to edit it...it
suits me...I am a god...
I mean yank...