You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2006.
To do this week:
Monday – Saturday: Work;
Tuesday: Find a bday present and other ‘bday type things’ on my afternoon break for Mrs M’s late birthday dinner at a restaurant after work (yes, M is coming too..lol);
Wednesday: Work two extra hours due to the fact that a colleague is ill;
Thursday: Work two extra hours due to the fact that a colleague is ill;
Friday: Chicken tacos with M at his place in the afternoon (Mrs M will be in England wrapping up a few things);
Saturday: Die of exhaustion (after work, of course);
Sunday: Attend a friend’s wife’s basketball game? (he’s not sure if it’s this week or next).
At some point in time: Correct 30 essays.
I’ve got a full on week, so don’t expect a lot of blogging.
Miscellaneous:
- Photos I took in Mainz (Germany) on Saturday.
- Searches that have found my blog:
Yahoo.com
my son hit a pedestrian and killed him how do we help our son
I hate Germany
what do i feed a four year old thats is good for them
did torture museums exist in europe? slovakia
photo of group of skinheads in germany
what do people in germany do for fun
MSN.com
germany type gold detector
I normally steer away from posting things with political implications, but there seems to have been a rash of silly and idiotic things in the news over the weekend, so I’m posting the first few lines of a few stories (with my comments in italics above them).
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This will be helpful if Antartica or Norway attack.
Yahoo News
Army Tests Soldiers in Alaskan Extremes
By RACHEL D’ORO, Associated Press Writer Sun Jan 29, 10:48 AM ET
DELTA JUNCTION, Alaska – The Humvee’s headlights shone incredibly bright, casting daylight clarity on a line of spruce trees, every needle standing out in stark contrast to the dark night of Alaska’s interior. Next to the vehicle, the incandescent lights on another Humvee glowed like mere candles. It was time to study an emerging technology in one of the harshest places on earth, the Army’s sprawling Cold Regions Test Center near Fort Greely.
The center includes man-made ice fields, snow rinks and sharp slopes for rating equipment, weapons and clothing in temperatures that can pitch past 60 degrees below zero and winds so fierce they can whip snow into a blinding fog
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Talk about misuse of government funds. These religious groups don’t seem to realise that people are still going to have sex.
Yahoo News
Religious Groups Get Chunk of AIDS Money
By RITA BEAMISH
New groups are springing up to win a piece of President Bush’s $15 billion AIDS program, with traditional players and religious groups joining forces to improve their chances in a competition that already has targeted nearly a quarter of its grants for faith-based organizations.
The administration is putting out a call for new community and church groups to get involved in HIV prevention and care in 15 target countries, most in sub-Saharan Africa. It is reserving $200 million specifically for groups with little or no government grant experience.
Groups that have deep local ties in the countries and focus on abstinence and fidelity — instead of just condoms — are faring well.
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This is just ridiculous
CNN.com
Federal appeals court upholds airport identification policy
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday dismissed a legal challenge to federal airport regulations requiring passengers to show identification before they board planes.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by Libertarian activist and millionaire John Gilmore that the policy constituted an illegal search and violated his right to travel freely.
After reviewing the government’s identification policy in private, a unanimous three-judge panel said the policy was not overly intrusive. The review was done in
private for security reasons.
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Someone is still unclear of the concept. Call me pedantic if you want (and you won’t be the first), but the photos did not disgrace the US, the soldiers that did the actions in the photos did. This ‘propaganda tool’ wouldn’t exist if the soldiers hadn’t done those things.
Bush says Abu Ghraib photos ‘disgraced’ US
Yahoo News
US President George W. Bush said that the graphic photographs of American military guards abusing Iraqi detainees inside Abu Ghraib prison had “disgraced” the United States.
However, in excerpts of an interview, conducted earlier this week, with CBS News broadcast Sunday, Bush stressed that the US authorities had investigated the abuse and brought those responsible to account.
“There’s no question … we were disgraced,” Bush said in response to a question about America’s image overseas, following the Abu Ghraib scandal.
“I know it caused a lot of people who want to like us to question whether they should,” Bush said, adding “equally importantly, it gave the enemy an incredible propaganda tool.
I caught the 9h16 train to Bonn and arrived eight minutes late. I then caught the metro to the Museum Mile (catchier than Museum Kilometre?) for €1.30. The museum I wanted to visit was The House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany, a wonderful museum that I visited in November 2002 on a German class trip. One of the best things about it is that it’s free.
I won’t post a lot about it right now, as I don’t really feel like typing, but it’s a must see for anybody that lives in Germany. Also, I saw a sign saying that they have two webcams (which I have since found on the website), so the next time I visit I’ll have to arrange times for you to see me on them.
I received an SMS from M at 11h30 asking me if I could meet them an hour later, but told them that I wouldn’t be able to meet up with them until 14h15. My train back was due to arrive at 13h42, but knowing Deutsche Bahn I knew that I should allow time for them to be late, so I did. It’s a good thing because we arrived back in my town six minutes late (and it took me ten minutes to walk to the meeting place).
We walked through Old Town and chatted about this and that for a few hours, and then ended up at the Café Einstein to warm up (we didn’t break freezing today). A couple hours later (three beers each for M and me and a couple of cups of hot chocolate for Mrs M) we left and continued chatting until our point of separation.
As previously mentioned, Mrs M and I get on very well and have since the first time we met. We have a lot in common and tend to carry on while sometimes unintentionally forgetting to include M in the conversation. At one point, M said, ‘Next time perhaps I should let you two go out alone,’ to which Mrs M replied, ‘That’s fine,’ and we all laughed. Mrs M and I plan on going to the symphony and doing other cultural things in the future that M has no interest, and M has no problem with that. He even said, ‘You know [insert Mrs M’s name], there’s no one I feel better about you doing things with than J,’ something M had said before, but I still took as a big compliment.
Something else came to light. After comparing notes about a few things, it appears that someone we work with (I won’t call this vindictive idiot a ‘colleague’) is playing off the difficulties that M and I had with each other last year and is trying to drive a wedge between us. However, M and I have agreed that if we hear any ‘he said’ crap from people we work with, we are going to find out if it really had been said or not. Yes, that’s common sense, but M has a bad temper and flies off the handle quickly (before thinking rationally about things), so I had to make sure that we had that understanding.
All in all, a wonderful day in which Germany definitely didn’t suck.
but this isn’t it. My flight was cancelled due to snow in Italy, so I didn’t even make it out of Germany. However, I did end up in Mainz and saw its cathedral.
More details later. I’m still singing the Hit The Road Blues, so I’m off to a museum in Bonn and then am supposedly meeting up with the M’s back here this afternoon.
A quick hop over the Alps to see what’s hot and what’s not on the runways of one of the fashion capitals of the world, and to select my spring wardrobe from only the finest Italian fashions.
Once again, I had no idea what to post for this subject. I then remembered that I had thought that someone would have to be very vain to have a vehicle like this when I took the photo on 31 December 2004 in Miami Beach.
It’s time for the 2006 Bloggies, a blogger award thing. This usually stresses me out due to the fact that I like to read all the nominated blogs before deciding which one to vote for. Voting closes on 31 January, and I’m rather busy before then.
Alternate Title: They should cancel all of our incompany classes when it snows
Car follies started on Wednesday evening when Jn got into car #3 to return to the school after teaching in a town 25 km away. The windshield wipers didn’t work and it was snowing. One of her students was able to figure out that it was a fuse and replaced it for her. She drove back without any other incidents.
Ln and I were supposed to carpool this morning, and we had arranged for me take car #4 home and pick her up at the school at 7h10. However, when it started snowing, I gave the key to Ln and told her that she would be driving (and I wouldn’t be taking the car home), as I hate driving in snow (and in general). We went to the office for something and then I decided that we’d take car #5 due to the fact that it was the only one that had winter tires (it rarely snows in the valley so we only need winter tires on one car). M took car #8 home, as he had to drive to the same company that Ln and I were going to but a car available for Ln and me to take meant that M didn’t have to backtrack to pick us up. Vince also had to go to the same company for 7h30 (same time as the rest of us), but was taking his own car. Life was good.
I arrived at the school at 7h05 and found Ln trying to get #5 out of the parking place. Unfortunately, someone had parked #4 behind it (it isn’t supposed to be parked there) and #3 was in front of it. We tried to get it out, but it was fruitless but not a bad thing due to the fact that the wipers in it didn’t work (we had made sure they were cleared of ice and snow).
Not knowing what to do, I suggested calling Vince to see if he could take us there and then we could come home with M after our classes. Unbeknownst to me, Ln had a key to the office, so she headed off for it to get the key to #4 and ordered me to clean it off. I obeyed, but then she ran out of the school shouting, ‘Clean off #3! The key to #4 wasn’t there!’ We cleaned off the car and left.
The road to the main road hadn’t been plowed, so we went carefully. Upon reaching the main road, things were looking up. It was plowed, as was the B road (a minor motorway). We zipped out several kilometres to the exit and continued on. However, it turned out that the road was quite slushy, so we had to go slowly. After the roundabout (this wasn’t the previously mentioned three roundabout way), the road was snow packed so we had to go even slower. Conversation:
Ln: ‘We’ve almost made it and we haven’t died.’
J: ‘That’s always a positive way to start a day. I hadn’t scheduled being killed into my day.’
Ln: ‘All we have to do now is hope that we don’t go off the road and get stuck.’
J: (playful tone): ‘We’re close enough that if we do get stuck, I can hop out and walk while you try to get the car out of the snow bank.’
Ln (chuckling): ‘You son-of-a-bitch!’
*both burst out laughing*
We finally got to the visitors’ parking and Ln pulled in. When we had gone together a few weeks ago, I backed in and was over the line. Ln told me that I was over the line and made me park better. As she pulled into the unplowed parking area, I said to her, ‘You’re over the line! Repark!’ and we both got a good laugh out of that too.
The ride home was blissfully uneventful, other than the car slipping on slush near the school. The boss had tried calling me when I was teaching, but my mobile phone was off. When I was walking into the school, he was walking out and I asked him what he had wanted. He said, ‘When I saw how #5 was parked, I was wondering if you were still alive,’ to which I responded, ‘We had a few problems this morning.’
When M returned, we found out that he had had his own car adventure. The wipers on #8 didn’t work, which he found out as he left his flat for the company. He had no choice but to go, so he had to wipe the snow off the windshield as he was driving (not an easy feat). Unfortunately, M only knows the ‘three roundabout way’ to and from the company (there are two other ways) and it consists of minor roads that were unplowed and snow packed after he got off the minor motorway. I’m glad that Ln doesn’t know that way as we could have spun out on the roundabouts. M’s problem returning, other than the wipers, was that he couldn’t get enough traction to make it up the minor incline that was near the railroad tracks because he had to drive slowly. Two men in the car behind him got out and pushed the car up and over it and he was able to return safely to the school.
It’s snowing in the city, a rarity. The rest of the area (country?) is usually buried in snow when it actually settles on the valley floor here. It started around 17h and we had about 4cm when I was walking home (my bike is hibernating in the school’s basement until the weather is warmer) at 20h45. Here are some photos I took on my way home (the ones of the path look better enlarged, which you can do by clicking on them).
Street towards Bus Station
Bus Station
Parking Lot
The path that leads to my street
As more and more bloggers in Germany seem to be connecting, I thought I’d make a post letting people know that an Annual Whiney Expat Bloggers in Germany Meet-Up exists.
On 22 October 2005, the First Annual Whiney Expat Bloggers in Germany Meet-Up happened in Marburg, despite how much Deutsche Bahn didn’t want it to. The attendees were The Greenhaddocks, Jen and Sparky, Christina and me. We agreed on a location and date and had wonderful time. Greenhaddock left a comment on one of Christina’s posts a few days ago about starting to get this year’s meet-up organised (expat bloggers not in Germany are welcome to attend), so I thought I’d put the wheels in motion. I realise that it’s a bit early, but this gives us more time to get the word out.
It appears that the autumn is the best time for something like this, due to the fact that spring is very close (hopefully its weather is too) and summer is most likely impossible, so I’d like to propose mid to late October again or early November (not one of the long weekends). We don’t need to decide on an exact date now, but how about thinking about a location?
At the last meet-up, we decided that instead of randomly selecting locations, we’d invade one of our towns every year for some sightseeing, dining (there’s no better tour guide than a local) and silliness. So, who’d like to volunteer their town? I volunteer my soon to be home of Federal Village, but all other suggestions are welcome. Also, if others could put up a message on their blogs informing their readers about this post and that the meet-up exists, it would be appreciated.
You can read write-ups about the event in 2005 here, here, here and here.
Whining is optional, but preferred.
