I just spent an hour creating this banner for my blog. Actually for BlogExplosion, a blog referral website.
The text was easy, I've got that up at the top already. It was trying to find an photo or two that was still interesting and somewhat recognizable when reduced to a height of 60 pixels. Oh, and relevant to me/Frankfurt/Germany. Sigh.
So, I'm not 100% happy with it, but happy enough. I'm going to let it stew for a few hours while I watch Pirates of the Caribbean (10EUR at WOM!). Let me know what you think.
These are my photos of the Hundertwasser Waldspirale House in Darmstadt. It looks like a vibrant eastern influenced Gaudi house. Very cool.
This is my favorite image. Do you see the eye? It's a reflection, but it's eerie.
Click on the "continue reading" to see the others.
Practically this same image was on a postcard they were selling for 1.75EUR. I like mine better. Anybody want to buy a copy? ;)
You did remember to set your clocks back, right? I didn't, but I knew about the change.
Good part of fall daylight saving time: get to sleep an extra hour.
Bad part: It's 6pm and it's full dark now. :grumble grumble:
This is the part of fall I don't like. Waking up in the dark, getting to work in the daylight but by the time I leave work it's full dark again.
The funny part about the spring daylight savings time change is that it happens on different weekends in the US and Germany. In Germany it's always the last weekend in March, in the US it's the first weekend in April. So for a week there is a seven hour difference between my parents and me. In the fall it's the same weekend.
Here in this entry you will see the Hochzeitsturm (Wedding Tower), the Russian Capella, and some examples of Jugendstil, or Art nouveau, from Darmstadt.
Just click on the "continue reading" to see them. Next up, Hundertwasser Waldspirale!
Yesterday Sandra invited me to Darmstadt for breakfast and some sightseeing. I'd offered to make pancakes before, so she suggested I bring the mix along to make for brunch.
I have to say I had a wonderful time! Cooking the pancakes and the breakfast conversation between Sandra, Bea, and I was great. We covered everything from Walmart, the eatting styles of left handers, their Australian trip (they took off for a year and camped around Australia), milk containers & styles in Germany/America, and hair products. A wonderful breakfast!
After breakfast Bea let me borrow one of her bikes and off we three went. We rode through Darmstadt and visited the Russian Kapelle, the Hochzeitsturm, and the Hundertwasser Waldspirale (also here). All wonderful buildings/places in Darmstadt that I never knew were there.
Sandra and I took lots of photos. Unfortunately, I left my camera cable at work Friday. So, I'll retrieve it tomorrow, download and share the photos then.
I'd been in Darmstadt a couple of times before, but I just wandered around the shopping area. I didn't know anybody in the area and was new to the Frankfurt area anyway. Frankly, I didn't find Darmstadt that interesting before. Now, I have to say it's a lot more interesting. I'll have to visit again!
Afterwards we went to a nice cafe for Kaffee und Kuchen. Mmm, gibt's lecker kuchen dort! (Delicious cakes there!) I'll have to ask Sandra for the name so I can recommend them.
Finally, Sandra and I sat in her apartment, listened to music and flipped through 1000 Places to See Before You Die while waiting for the time to come for my train. We discussed places in the US, in Asia, trips we've taken, places we want to see. Time flew by.
I had such a good time! Thanks for the invite Sandra! :)
Oh, I liked the "1000 Places" - I'd seen it before and my friend Janine talked about it - so I went and bought it from Amazon.de. It'll probably arrive in a couple of days at work.
Every so often I get in these moods. Everything I do is crap, I'm a horrible person, I'm a failure, etc. I'm filled with anger and depressing thoughts. I want to get out of my skin, go somewhere else. Listen to lots of angry rock. LOUD.
It used to happen every three to six months and last for a few days. Lately though, it hasn't happened. I'd say my last bad spell was about a year ago. And it wasn't too long, maybe a day, day and a half.
Well, I'm in the middle of one of those spells right now. I really do not want to be here. Not as in not here on earth, just not...here. I want out of my skin.
Update: I'm feeling better. Really I am. It helps to 1) get it out - just say it in a public sphere somehow and 2) Bill called me and emailed me lots of lovely loving thoughts and 3) my mom called and 4) one of the situations at work that snowballed these feelings is clearing up. So I think I'm on a permanent up-swing now. Which would make this the shortest really depressive cycle I've ever had.
By the way, I have to credit Bill and our relationship for even-ing out these depressive cycles. His love and support really lift me up and keep me on an even keel. I love him so.
I'm a little t'd off this morning. I broke one of my Halloween Bowls.
First, I couldn't wake up, so I was later than normal getting out the door, but that's nothing earthshattering. Then I put my black ghost Halloween bowl in a bag to bring in to work so I could spread Halloween cheer. It matched my "Boo" shirt and ghost socks. On the way down the stairs to the Sbahn, the handles of the bag were all tangled and I tried to untangle them. Thinking the entire time, "don't let go of the handles, you'll drop the bowl". So what happens? I drop the bowl. And it broke in tens of pieces. :(
The Sbahn being late and jammed packed and slow just added to it all. So, I'm a little ticky this morning. Mostly because I'm really disappointed in myself.
Sandra was tasked with taking photos of a restaurant for work this evening, so she asked if I'd like to come along and then go to dinner afterwards. Sure! The restaurant is where our bosses are taking our clients out for the annual Christmas thank you dinner. The bosses want photos of the restaurant to send with the invites.
Anyway, once Sandra and I found the place, we were at a loss as to what to photograph. The place (Lobster's in Sachenhausen) might be a really good seafood restaurant - they wouldn't pick anything else, and besides it smelled delicious! - but their decor is sadly lacking. Above the door is a half painted over sign from some other establishment and there are no decorations. However, the restaurant logo in the window with the lights behind it and the postcards on the wall beside it were interesting, so we shot that. I was using Sandra's digital camera to shoot, so no pictures. I'll ask her for a copy tomorrow at work though, so you can see what we ended up with.
Afterwards we went to a mexican restaurant for dinner (crappy margarhita's, so-so food, nice atmosphere) and then we walked around taking photos of the Frankfurt skyline at night. That's when I took my first photo assignment photo (see entry below). We also walked through the Romer square, where I got a couple interesting photos. A very nice evening in Frankfurt.
Today my littlest brother (who is taller than me, they all are), turns 20. One more year before he can legally drink those good German beers. Er, in the States that is. :)
Happy Birthday little brother! :) I hope you have a good one.
According to The Ugly American (who read in the German daily tabloid BILD) and the Washington Post (scroll down to "Clinton's dream job"), yes. Clinton would love to have Kofi Annan's job as the UN Secretary General when Mr. Annan steps down in 2006. And knowing Clinton, he'll probably get the job. Of course, it hinges a little bit on the outcome of the US election and it's still two years away. Lots of things can happen in two years.
On the one hand, it would be nice to have a former American President in the top seat. And the Europeans love him, so his appointment would probably improve relations across the ocean. Or just convince the Europeans/the Middle East that we really are imperialistic pigs looking to take over the world. Bwhhaaha. Er, um, sorry about that.
On the other hand, I'm not so sure Clinton is a good person for the job. I'm really not sure what to make of this. Feel free to speculate or offer your opinion in the comments.
Last night I accepted a spontaneous invitation from Simone to go see Doro Pesch in Offenbach Capitol. [As a side note, the Capitol is an interesting building by itself - it was a Jewish Synagogue in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Now it's a sometimes used concert hall for not-so-successful acts.]
When we first got there, a Nickelback sounding English speaking band was the warm warm up act. Not too bad, but not great. They set up for the orchestra and then a Japaneses singer came on. She was ...um...different. Not in a good way. The music was okay, but that was the orchestra. Her voice was just a bit flat. And then she did a spoken work beatnik kind of song. Um, I'm sure she does well in Japan, but the German metal crowd was just waiting for her to be done. They did clap and give her praise for speaking in German though.
The next act was Blaze Bryson, a former lead singer of Iron Maiden and Wolfsbane. He was pretty good. (In case you haven't figured it out, I'm not much of a metal fan.) What I liked best about his performance, oddly enough, is how I could tell he most likely pratices Tai Chi or some other esoteric form. He would plant his feet in a centering stance (taking root) and sing from his root. Um, I know that sounds dirty, but it means he was projecting all his enery from his center. Coupled with that was his arm movements - I could see the arm movements of the classic Tai Chi form echo'd in how he moved. Sure, all the metal fans were rejoicing and rocking along when he sang some well known Iron Maiden song, but I was looking at his body movements and the orchestra (specifically the cute cello player). Yes, I'm that weird.
Finally, Doro came on stage and the crowd really fired up then. Doro Pesch was the lead singer of a German heavy metal band called Warlock in the 1980's. She's one of the first metal lead singers and she was very popular here in Germany - among the metal crowd anyway. For lots more history and fan club/picts/tour info/etc, visit Doro.de. Anyway, I'll agree she looked good and sang well, even for sounding and looking like an 80's metal rocker. Her band was really into the gig - the Percussionist guy Johnny was bouncing all round his platform playing the tamporine and symbols. He was a BUNDLE of energy! If I'd grown up listening to her music, I'd probably have been a lot more enthusiastic about having seen her. I can't say the evening was wasted though. I had great fun people watching and the music was okay.
I have to say though, for such a well known and loved German metal rocker, the crowd didn't really get too energetic. Oh sure, there was the core group on the floor in front of the stage that kept putting their hands in the air and singing along. However, the other 80% of the crowd stood there and bobbed their heads, occasionally singing along. Is this as much as the Germans could loosen their public persona's for a favorite metal rocker in a concert venue? Or was it just that there wasn't enough of a mass in such a small venue in a suburb of Frankfurt to get the energy flowing?
A few photos from my trip this last weekend. More later.
The hotel I stayed at in Cologne. Yes, that is the shower right behind the bed. The room was very small and the bathroom was on the stairway landing, down a half floor. Not a problem, but it was 55Euro/night. And the wardrobe flyer said that it's normally 90 Euro/night. The first price was already about 20 Euro too much. But, they sent me my keys. Nice, small, but expensive.
The Cologne Hauptbahnhof.
The next photo is after I spent a few hours at the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn. They didn't allow photographs, so nothing from there. This museum has a wonderful exhibit on the German history from the end of WWII to the fall of the wall. It's really quite excellent. It covers the German struggle to deal with the horror of the war, rebuild their infrastructure, rebuild their government, deal with a split Germany and become a strong proud economic power. I highly recommend visiting it. Bonus: it's 100% free.
An announcement sign with clock in the Bonn Ubahn.
The front of the Bonn Hauptbahnhof.
The lovely lounge atmospheric cafe where I allowed myself to indulge in a delicious meal. Chicken stuffed with spinach and cheese, covered in a wine sauce. On the side were augratin potatoes and artfully cut, perfectly done zuchini and carrot pieces. Together with a glass of Chardonnay and followed afterward with a milch cafe. Ah, perfect.
I was bored while waiting for the train to arrive for the trip home. So I about 10 around the Bahnhof. This is one of two that I liked.
This weekend I went to Köln and Bonn. And I had a lovely time in both places - thank you Sandra! However, the real adventure started when I got home. I got off the Sbahn at my homestation and thought "Let's get my keys out." The thought immediately after that was "Oh Sh*t. NO! Wait, let's look."
Early Sunday morning I took the keys out of my backpack and placed them on the bed. I was thinking - "I'll need these later, and having them all the way on the bottom of the bag does no good. So I'll put them somewhere near the top." Except, I couldn't remember putting them back in the bag. Sure enough, they weren't in the bag. And a call to the hotel confirmed they were there. In Köln.
I have an extra set of keys and my loving boyfriend suggested putting them at work. I was going to do that last week. I just, well, never did.
Fortunately a call to Stefan solved the immediate problem of where to spend Sunday night - thank you Stefan! And thanks to my overpacking tendencies, I had enough unmentionables to make it another day. [Silly enough, I forgot my tooth brush though. Rinsing and brushing with your finger and lots of minty gum helps that problem though. ] And a few calls around to the Hausmeister and the Apartment Management got me the number of my landlord. Which I have! Funnily enough though, inside my house. Which I couldn't get into.
It all ends happily though. My landlord had an extra key and was going to be in the area anyway for an Apartment owners meeting, so I got into my house. Yea! And my regular keys are on their way here via Deutsche Post. They will hopefully arrive at work tomorrow. Whereupon I'll simply leave the extra keys there.
I'll post some photos with trip commentary tomorrow or Wednesday.
The Guardian, a UK newspaper, has an article urging Europeans concerned about the US Election to write a personal letter to people living in Clark County, Ohio. The purpose of this letter: to persuade them why voting for BushKerry is better than voting for KerryBush. Oh, it's never said in so many words, but that's the implied thrust of the article.
What? You don't know anybody in Clark County, Ohio?? Well, that's okay. They've helpfully mined the public database of registered voters who've idenitified themselves as unaffiliated for you. Just give the Guardian your email address and they'll email you an address of a Clark County voter.
Now, the Guardian freely admits that it's "worth considering at the outset how counterproductive this might all be, especially if approached undiplomatically", however "this year the issue is more charged than ever". So it's okay then. Right?
And the Guardian does suggest being civil and to try not "coming across as interfering or offensive", and hand writing your letter so it gives a more personal touch. Wow, they're so sensitive. In the last week I've read about blogs, even US Senatorial House campaigns, accusing Americans of being stupid if they re-elect Bush. In fact, I read about this article on one of them. What do you want to bet a good majority of these concerned letters to Clark County voters will contain such language? If not so explicitly, then certainly implied.
Boy, I'd feel real happy to be an unaffliated Clark County voter right now. So happy I might feel like visiting my friendly neighborhood lawyer.
This makes me so mad. The aggrogance. Imagine an American newspaper suggesting it's readers to write letters to Britians about why Tony Blair's party should be re-elected. Or to Germans suggesting Stoiber would be a better candidate because he's more friendly to America. Or voting against Chirac in the next French election. Riiighhhtt.
You know what? Butt out.
Update: Bob kindly points out in the comments that I reversed the names of the candidates above. I've corrected it. I obviously meant the Guardian was suggesting it's readers send letters for Kerry, against Bush, but in the heat of my anger I messed up. And didn't see it in my several read through's. Sorry.
Update 2 (21.10.2004 11:12): I'm closing the comments on this entry. I've said I'll I want to in the here and in the comments, and the Guardian itself is backing away from the letter campaign. As I say in the last comment:
If I received a civil letter, I'd read it, chew on it awhile (there'd still be the immediate hackles going up), and then probably send a return letter to the person thanking them for their view. However, I can't honestly say it would change my mind. On the other hand, if valid points were raised, or issues were mentioned that I'd never considered before, I'd probably do some research.
Yes! I was waiting until this evening for it, then I was going to send off the emergency ballot. Now, I'll fill this one out and send it off Monday morning.
Btw, there are eight, count them, eight choices for President & Vice President. The obvious Bush/Cheney, Kerry/Edwards, Nader/Cemejo. I never knew Nadar's running mate's name. How am I supposed to have know the other five choices? Like I'm going to pick any of them anyway. This election will be too close for me to pick one of the others to give them a boost & because they have a female running mate, regardless of their policies.
There's all these Fl. constitutional amendments to think about too - Mom sent me some websites to read up on them, guess I'll have to read them Sunday evening.
Okay, I know I promised to let you vote on the photo suggestions yesterday, but I only received four:
This means I either inundate my five readers with photos already and they've seen all they want to, or nobody had better ideas.
In any case, there is no voting, as I only have three valid suggestions - sorry Amanda, a trip to France isn't in the works for a while. So, I will work on them and post them sometime next week. I'm gone this weekend and scheduled for bowling on Monday night, so start looking for the photos around Wednesday next week.
I decided yesterday, somewhat abruptly, that I was going to visit Bonn this weekend, specifically Sunday. I've never been there, it's not that far away (maybe two hours), and it used to be the West German capital. So, decision made, I asked Sandra for recommendations of what to do there - she's from a city in the area called Cologne/Köln.
I hardly had the words out of my mouth and she's offering to drive me there and pick me up. She's visiting a friend in Köln on Saturday. Okay, fine, I leave Saturday, save the price of a Bahn ticket and now have to pay for a hotel. Cool.
Then today Sandra says her friend has an extra ticket for a Caberet show for Saturday and I'm welcome to come along if I want. Okay, I'm flexible, and it sounds fun.
Right now the plan is to leave Frankfurt tomorrow at 1pm and spend the afternoon and evening in Köln with Sandra and her friend. Then, find a hotel in the area to spend the night. On Sunday I'll take the train to Bonn, wander around, take photos, and then come back by myself on the train in the evening. Plans of course subject to change as whims hit me. :)
When I came up out of the Sbahn tonight, the quality of light given off by the streetlights and the rain reflections on the cobblestones inspired me. So I dashed home for an umbrella and a warmer sweater, then came back out to snap these.
Enjoy.
Click on "continue reading" to see the other four.
I checked the TBE site just now, and he's release a new version. However, there are lots of (maybe)'s beside fix's, so I'm going to wait a day or two and see if another release comes out. Plus, I'm just too whooped to bother with it right now.
See previous entry.
Dugging dynamic code, buying a coke for a homeless guy, a ranting Sbahn driver, and political snail mail! All in one night!
First off, I was late at work figuring out why 4 rows were missing from a query. Two reports that should show the same number of flights were showing different numbers. It took a couple of hours of scratching my head and doing querys to get on the right track. Except the right track didn't seem to work. So I had to dig deep into dynamic code to figure it out. Searching through code to find the table where the real table name is stored along with the where clause, etc. I know, too geeky. I found it. And it was a silly error - nothing I did though, thank goodness. But nothing that was immediately obvious either.
By the time I triumphantly found fixed the error, it was 9:30pm, so I headed to McD's for dinner. As I sat there eatting my two cheeseburger meal and reading a news article, I noticed a guy hand another guy french fries and walk out. That's out, I thought. And then I noticed that the guy was practically gulping the fries down. He looked like a clean cut 20-ish young man, but if you looked, it was obvious he was homeless. He must be newly homeless. As I was debating whether to approach him and offer to buy him a hamburger to go with the fries, he approached me. I was disappointed when he gave me the line about trying to go home to Stuttgart and just needed some money for the ticket. I offered to buy him a coke or hamburger instead. He took the coke. Then he says "oh, you don't believe me and don't want to give me money! Well, instead of a coke you can buy the ticket for me. I have money, I'll send it to you." Um sorry, no thanks. Here's your coke, keep the change. The money to buy a ticket home line (and send you it back) is a crack addict ploy. Another girl used it on me before and I saw her slowly denegrate over a couple of months. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I'll settle for buying him a coke.
The sbahn ride home was an adventure too. Somebody stuck their foot in the door in order to allow others on the sbahn. The driver came on over the intercom and gave that person a smack down. At the next stop they must have said something to the driver because he came back on and said something again. They finally got off at the third station and the driver said good riddance to which they must have flipped him the finger because he said - over the station intercom, not the sbahn intercom - "Verpiss dich". Which is the German equivalent of "Fuck off". LOL.
Finally, I know the Florida Voter's Registration people received my absentee ballot registration. How do I know this? Did an absentee ballot arrive in my mail? Nooo, but a political postcard for the woman running for the local appraisers office did. So, they have my correct address and must have received it at least a week ago. Where's my ballot? I have the emergency backup one, but I can't vote for the nice local appraiser lady if I don't have the official ballot, just President. Come on people.
Okay, I'm off to do something other than sit in front of the computer. Or maybe just read other blogs. Agggggg, crazy crazy night.
Ug. My favorite, use-it-all-the-time browser extension has a bug. A serious bug. Firefox has a lovely feature that block popups. Tabbed Browser Extensions allows me to place the tab bar at the bottom of the screen, bring links up in seperate tabs in a background process, and all sorts of other lovely browser enriching goodness. However, at the moment TBE does not play well with the popup blocker in the new version of Firefox. It completely ignores the settings and just blocks the popup. Which is great for ads - I can't remember the last time I had a pop up ad - but bad for blog comments. I can usually get around this by right clicking and opening the link in a new tab, but sometimes the link is a Javascript and doesn't co-operate. Sigh.
I will be checking the TBE site daily until this bug is fixed.
If you have a dog [sniff, I will eventually], then you must check out Lab Tested. The owner of a 5 month old Lab writes up reviews of toys and other doggie products that Starbuck comes in contact with. The write ups are very laugh worthy. [hat tip: Instapundit]
der Schnurrbart - mustache.
As in, ich habe heute ein Mann gesehen mit ein riesig Schnurrbart. Today I saw a man with a huge mustache. It was one of those handlebar mustaches.
Oh my goodness - there is a Handlebar Mustache Club!
I'm not copying Val, really I'm not. However, I saw on Blogger.com News last week were they suggesting that you solicit photo suggestions from your readers, and I liked the idea.
I'll collect suggestions until Thursday and then ask you, the readers, to vote on the suggestions on Friday. I'll take the photos over the weekend and post them next Monday.
So, your mission is to create a comment with at least one photo suggestion that you would like me to post. Something artsy, sight-seeing worthy, local, whatever. Suggest away!
Once we finally found how to get to the Golfing Range - there was construction around the entrance, we had a lovely afternoon golfing. The weather was perfect - sunny and slightly warmer than chilly. Perfect for walking around a 9 hole course. I have to say I had a lot more fun than I ever expected. Hitting a little white ball around a green isn't as easy or as boring as I've always thought it would be. Still, it's probably not a sport I will take up for sport. Tagging along every now and then to hang out with friends would be fun though.
After hole 7 we allowed the couple directly behind us to play through. They started about 40 minutes and five holes after us, but were playing a lot faster than us. While we waited, we popped open a bottle of Crémant and toasted Simone's birthday - the reason we were there. The two glasses on an emtpy stomach went straight to my head and made the last two holes very interesting.
All in all, I didn't play that bad for my first time. My best effort was 5 strokes, but for eight holes I did and 8 or 9 and only on one hole did I do the maximal 10 strokes. Hey, at least I didn't lose three balls in the water like Stef or Simone did. :)
Click on "continue reading" for the other photos from the day.
The driving range/9 hold course where we played.
Simone and Sandra warming up. Stefan took this photo - the pink sweater on the left is me.
The fifth hole with the Frankfurt skyline in the background.
Sandra making a picture perfect tee off (see the ball in the air?).
Simone practicing with the locals looking on.
Du fehlst mir. I miss you.
This can also be written/said as Ich vermisst dich, but I hear the former more often. I believe the former is more everyday language while the latter is more hoch Deutsch (high German).
Du fehlst mir Bill.
Today, I'm off with the three S's to play golf. Stefan and Simone are experienced golfers while Sandra and I are newbies. Never played in our lifes.
We're going to a training course with 9 holes and a driving range. Since it's a training course, Sandra and I don't have to pass our theory test before going on the course. Yes, a theory test. Real German golf courses and clubs require you to take a test before going out on the green. Because you can't just have fun you know, you have to know the rules - and obey them!
For my GWOD fans, some golfing terms:
golf - der Golf, das Golfspiel
golf club - der Golfschlaeger
golf course - der Golfplatz
I'll write up a report at the end of the day. Tschuss!
Okay, CNN is my only English language TV news source after 8pm, and since that's about when I get home most nights, that's what I watch for 10-30 mins before changing the channel. (A long way of saying other news sources would probably be just as irritating, but CNN's the only one I watch.)
Just a couple of things that have been getting on my nerves lately:
Update: Thanks to Sarah in the comments below, I realize I was giving the impression that CNN is my only English language news source. I meant that CNN is my only TV English language news source. And, as I said, that's after 8pm. Before 8pm I have the choice of BCC also.
This lovely phrase means, literally, "That's getting on my cookie." This cracks me up. Of course it really means "That's getting on my nerves."
Mein neueste Projekt geht mir langsam auf den Keks. My lastest project is slowly getting on my nerves.
A major case of missing my babe just came on. And I'm lightheaded for some reason and it's bed time. Guten Nacht.
The FAZ apparently surveyed German CEOs (sorry, can't find the article) about their favorite books yesterday. They got some dosey's for answers. For example, at least two said Bill Clinton's "My Life" was their favorite book. Come on.
So, it got me to thinking about my own favorite books. Far and above my favorite of the last couple of years is Dan Simmons Hyperion. In the end, it's a four book set, but that first one is the best. It's an interesting story, one you learn bit by bit and backwards, which is okay since the antagonist in the book is a monster that shifts through time and dimensions. The best part of the book though is how it's told. It's told through the narration of four central characters, each with their own part of the book. And each narration is in a different literary style. I highly recommend it.
Another favorite, one I've read at least three times since age 10, is Louis L'amours Walking Drum. It's one of his few non-Westerns and set in the 11th/12th century. The reader follows the narrator from his boyhood home in Wales(?) where the local robber baron has just killed his mother and robbed his house, to being enslaved on a galley ship, to apprenticing to a Mid-Eastern scholar in Constantinople (or is Istanbul?). A great adventure with little nuggets of wisdom thrown in for good measure.
Finally, a book I ran across last year and love for it's sheer wackiness of plot, is Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book. This is actually the second novel of the series, but it's the one I found first and like the best. Obviously the title caught my eye. But the plot captured me. Thursday Next is a Literary Detective and can jump into books by will. Her father is a rogue Time Cop and an evil mega-corporation is trying to eradicate her husband's very existance. While trying to find her lost husband, Thursday leaps into and out of several great literary works - Poe's The Raven, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, just to name two. It's great fun.
So, what is your favorite book or books? Why do you like them so?
Remember those "Choose your own adventure " books? I read a couple as a child, but I could never seem to find the combination to the really interesting parts, so I ended up giving up the genre after a couple of books. Now, there's a grown up version! As Bookslut's columnist Julie Boulanger so delightfully explains in Choose Your Own Sex Adventure. Hmmm....that first one sounds like it's worth a look.
This guy from London just called me up wanting to survey me about my expatriate experiences with investing (what investing?). He was obviously reading from a script and not really paying much attention to what he was reading or my answers. He asked how satisfied I was with my offshore investments. I don't have any. Okay, how satisfied are you with your offshore investments in [Caymen Islands, Isle of Man, Switzerland, etc]. I just had to laugh and ask if he was reading from a script. "Yes I am, how did you know?" LOL.
But hey, he had a lovely accent. I was turning into a puddle just listening to him. He could read me the ingredients off a cereal box and I wouldn't care. Sorry Bill. :-)
Amanda will be happy, I have two new GWOD's. :)
Zerfall - breakup, collapse, disintegration. As in, what the Spanish ETA is doing now. From a Der Spiegel article: ETA vor dem Zerfall - ETA before the breakup.
liieren - to associate, ally. However, in the context I read at Der Spiegel, it means "being together with someone": Der 35-jährige Amerikaner (Marilyn Manson) ist mit Stripperin und Fetisch-Model Dita von Teese, 32, liiert. "The 35 year old American is together with the stripper and fetish model Dita von Teese, 32." I think the word liieren is the wrong word though, since the article is talking about their upcoming marriage.
Go read new blogger Non PC in Latte Land. He's got a good analysis of why he thinks we are in Iraq, and why we need to stay the course (in answer to John Kerry's remarks last week about us having a "genuine coalition"). First entry here and a rebuttal to a harse critic here.
In the second post, he mentions a Commentary magazine article from the September 2004 issue: World War IV: How It Started, What It Means, and Why We Have to Win by Norman Podhoretz. They don't allow you to link directly, so you'll have to navigate to 2004, September, and then click on the second article. You need Adobe too. Instapundit linked to the article back in August and I printed it out. It's a great article. Goes into the history behind the current Iraq conflict, the hard left's evolution as a protest machine, why he feels it's more correct to refer to the "War on Terror" as "World War IV", and why we need to win this war. I highly recommend reading it.
Says CNN. The article doesn't say that the X-prize was officially awarded to the SpaceShipOne though, just that they successfully fulfilled the conditions of the prize - namely two successful flights, within two weeks, to the edge of space with the weight of three passengers.
Extremely cool. Good going SpaceShipOne.
I just agreed to be at work at 7am next Thursday in order to play a release change into Production. Argghhhhhh!!!! Any volunteers to call me at 6am my time to wake me up?
UPDATE: I might not have to be here. My boss is talking about running a script through an automatic process then. We'll see.
I've just returned from seeing Man on Fire. Denzel Washington's character does creative bad things to the bad guys. Their just rewards, you could say. And the little girl in the movie, Dakota Fanning, gives an excellent performance. It's funny at times, good bad guy action, and justifiable revenge.
They showed a preview for Blade: Trinity. Yummy. HAVE to see this one. Wesley Snipes plays such a yummy good vampire. Blade I was great, Blade II was eh, this one looks like it'll be better than the second. He's teaming up with another band of vampire hunters - one of them apparently an ex-vampire. I'm not quite sure how that works, but we'll see.
Two other movies I rented this weekend [what? don't look at me like that, I've got a lot of free time on my hands now] were White Oleander and Love Actually. Two movies that I've wanted to see, and just never had. The first was very good and Michelle Pfeiffer plays an unexpected role. For me anyway. The second was an interesting concept - eight or nine interweaving love stories - and just plain good fun. Not very deep. However, the sound track for Love Actually is excellent. I'm going to have to look for that one in the local Saturn.
Oh my, look what I saw when I was out and about today - a giant man and a dinosaur!
I wandered into the international press store at the airport after leaving Bill. They had a wonderful selection of the latest English novels. I picked up Oracle Night by Paul Auster. So far it's intriguing enough, mostly because half of the story is occuring in page long parenthetical footnotes. That's a device I've not seen in an actual fiction story before. Another book that looked interesting, but I didn't pick up was The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. It's essentially a Christmas Carol/Wonderful Life kind of story. Finally, in the mass-market-formulaic-thriller category, there was Split Second by David Baldacci.
I couldn't justify spending 34Euro on three books (at once) today though, esp. since I'm in the middle of reading Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks, a German children's book, and I just borrowed an audio book from Stefan (auf Deutsch). So I just bought the one. I'll get around to the others, or not, later.
P.S. I've linked to both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com above for one simple reason - the cover of the book. The cover of the book shown on the respective website is what I saw in the bookstore and, imho, the cover I link to is better than the cover of the same book on the other side of the pond.
Bill's plane took off about 20 minutes ago. :sniff: I went with him to airport and stayed with him until the security check. I even watched to make sure he made it through there okay. Then I couldn't see him anymore. :( So I made my way home.
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Poor Bill - he got the third degree at the ticket counter. They were doing security question pre-screening. I was asked to step aside because I wasn't flying and they didn't want me to influence his answers or something. Most people got the standard three questions: Did you pack your bags yourself? Are you carrying any knives/explosives/box cutters? Have your bags been with you the entire time? Bill got: Are you in the military? (No.) Are you working for a company that works for the military? (I was.) Hmmm....why do you have a military ticket? (Oh, I'm retired and moving back to the States.) Are you moving permenantly (looking at valid residency permit)? (Yes.) And a lot more questions. He passed though.
The flight was overbooked so they were looking for 10 volunteers to stay overnight - free hotel, $500 voucher, transportation to and from airport. Nice deal but Bill has an appointment with a little boy who hasn't seen Dada in two months.
After we shared a quick breakfast I left him at the security check. He went through the whole rigamorol there too. He's transporting the coins he's been collecting while over here (the shippers wouldn't ship them), so his carry on was a big orange blob on the x-ray machine. Bill had to completely unpack his carry on. That was included in the hand wand sweep and the removing of shoes (they were making practically everybody do that).
Bill is now safely on his way back to the US. My travel Pluto is accompanying him to keep him safe. :) And he's got a small bag of snacks, a Bill Bryson book, and a lovely journal with pen to keep him occupied on the plane.
I'm going to soo miss him. He fit into my life and apartment so well these last two months. It was so natural to have him here. We're going to keep in touch by email and phone. And we'll see each other at Christmas. And sometime in the next year we'll be back together if everything works out. One step at a time.
