There is a particular program that we use at work…I’ve trained enough people on it that I realize now it causes people to talk to themselves…
is that considered a bug? Should I email tech support to report a bug or ask the boss for a therapist?
I plan to buy a bike this weekend…this is exciting…to noone but myself…
It was my dad’s birthday yesterday…A kind and generous man…
I remember once my dad was giving i and some friends a ride somewhere and one of my friends only had a couple bucks…my dad gave him a few without expecting anything in return…I think I was a bit insulted that my dad wouldn’t give money to me (I was 13 or so), but in retrospect he knew what he was doing…that was a kind thing of him to do.
so happy birthday to my pa…
I would kill for self checkout or at least an express lane at any of the markets here…
some days I go to Aldi for a sandwich and coffee drink (cost 2.18€), and I have to stand in line behind 8 old people who are doing their shopping during my lunchtime (jerks). then wait there with the 2.20€ in my hand as the old people put their groceries into their shopping carts or bag then pull out their wallets as if surprised that they had to pay…can’t you get the money out beforehand old people???
Funny how in a country known for the efficiency of it’s people and products that there are lots of little things that are very inefficient…Garbage collection is still done by hand as is mail delivery…At least the mail people have bikes as they go door to door to drop off the mail…
and this is just to insult myself as I’ve already done to all you readers ;). Words and “art” by moi!
OK…I just can’t wait until tomorrow…It is Monday night and I’m bored…
ok to distract from the last insulting entry I’m posting some pics…
I went for a walk along the river away from the city center and at some point I realized I have never actually walked in this direction…that’s sort of embarrassing…Like I mentioned a few days ago I really haven’t seen that much of Frankfurt…I made it halfway to Offenbach and got a text off someone looking for food, so I didn’t make it to Offenbach, but maybe next weekend…anyways some shots of Frankfurt (my fair city…for the moment at least…). there are much much worse places to live…I’m content here.
…after rereading that it sort of implies that I’m not fond of Frankfurt…I am…in fact to be clear…i am fond of frankfurt, and I am fond of cheese, and i am fond of Guinness.
I’ve been thinking lately how I generally lack substance (just look at this page 😉 )
anyways I think I’ve really touched (positively or negatively) very few people in my life…now granted…that isn’t necessarily how one should or could define a successful life, but isn’t that some part of it?
…but then I was thinking that not only am I fairly unsubstantive, but I don’t really know anyone who is…sorry to all my friends, who make me laugh, cry, love, etc, but is anyone doing great things now-a-days? (ok is anyone doing slightly better than mediocre things?)
Should I feel better that I’m not worse than anyone else I know…
OK I’m probably going to feel bad about this entry (cuz I may have just insulted everyone I’ve ever met), so that means tomorrows entry will be extra crappy to make you all forget about this one… 😉
quick…someone give me a topic…
So pub quiz last night…we’re slowly improving…no thanks to Saffa I’m sure, but we got 4th out of 12 this time…Just barely missed placing (and a free baby guinness for the table) and it’s probably cuz Saffa was rude to the quizmistress…He had to correct her (adamantly) about one of the movies (about a boy I think)…
anyways if we had taken my advice and used the Joker on General knowledge we might have moved up a spot…
I did peak in the General knowledge section…here was my high point…
Q. Which US chain is named after a character in Moby Dick
A….Starbucks (this one was all me….I got cocky after this, which probably lost us a point in the movie round when I was adamant that “Gone with the Wind” was a black and white movie…It was in fact in colour and also won best picture oscar in 1939…everyone at the table wanted Gone with the Wind, but since “the yank” was flying high after the Starbucks question I misled the team…oops…stop listening to me people… 😉
I’ve been in 4 countries (besides DE) in the last 4 weeks…Wow…fairly impressive considering I had never been outside of the states as of about 2 years ago.
I’ve put up the other pics on the Bratislava page…please note that not only is Bobby McFerrin visiting that country, but also Naughty by Nature (hip hop hurray…down with OPP?) and also there are Kim Wilde posters in the background….I also saw that Chuck Berry is doing a show in Slovakia…Rock n Roll is apparently more powerful than democracy…the West has won with their sex drugs and rock n roll.
Not sure if I’ve ever really written about this, but I need someone to explain to me why Genetically modified food is such a bad thing (I’m not being a smart ass I want an actual explanation without having to do research).
If you can produce twice as much corn with the same amount of water and land as non GM corn why would you not want to do that…
If you’re against GM does that mean you want poor people to starve?
If I was thinking properly I would somehow tie this all into a serious of incomprehensible statements about overuse of resources and if one is anti GM then one must be pro war (but only among rich people and countries, because war among poor people doesn’t really cut down on consumption)…
Again….semi-serious….I’m completely ignorant, can anyone recommend some reading on this topic?
I think I need some scientist friends…where does one go to meet the big thinkers in Frankfurt…oh yeah…Yours…
on a serious note…can someone do Europe a favor and cut off a couple of sven’s fingers? No need to kill the man, but I just don’t want to have to listen to him “perform” anymore.
Can anyone name any famous Helens besides Helen of troy and Helen Keller….
random out of context Quote…
me: I wish my name was Helen….
me: there’s a body angel dude over there…he looks like the dude from the Blue Lagoon.
Kat: is it Chris Atkins…
that’s right…Kat thought she knew the guy from the Blue Lagoon…
Random out of context Quote…(to me)
Kat: you are being captain asshole tonight….
I think there are only two actual close readers of this page and they both seem to be mac users…hmmm…I’m annoyed…
So the plan Friday is that Matt and I meet outside Hauptbahnhof at a bit after 16:00… Done…no problems up to this point…I had my second kase und schinken croissant of the day whilst waiting for matt near that piece of crap O’Reilleys (we have a vow!!!).
catch the bus to Hahn…I thought it was like a 45 minute ride…it’s an hour and 45….good thing I’m an informed sort of guy…I read the paper while matt tries to sleep…we occasionally talk in a whisper while listening to Belinda Carlisle and whitesnake come over the bus speakers…
Then we arrive at Hahn…My first time there and the impression is that it’s sort of like little league airport…it’s apparently also run by Fraport, so they must use it as some kind of training ground for the real airport…
plane is delayed. My Hahn/Ryanair experience is going from no opinion to negative opinion…Damn you Ryanair…
Get on the plane about an hour later than planned…Meet Dennis the former bouncer who was sitting next to Matt…offered us a car ride back home on Sunday night…says he’s on the same plane back that day and he has a car…sweet!!!!
Plane lands and I somehow ended up as the very last one in Passport control…Here’s how my passport experience has been for about the last 3 months…
Give person passport…
watch as passport person opens first page…
watch passport control person raise eyebrows
watch passport control person look at me suspiciously…
look away and wait (variations on this include passport control giggling or showing me my own photo in my own passport and asking if this is me….Yeah…).
Wait as passport control person looks through every page in my passport and eventually getting to my DE work permit photos and repeating the same confused expressions…
passport control person raises eyebrows
passport control person looks at me suspiciously…
Wait and look away as passport control person moves head from my passport to me about 7 times…
stand uncomfortably and check phone or look around to see if there’s a big line behind me…
wait while passport person types stuff into their computer… apparently nothing has ever come up because this is usually the last step…
I eventually get through the gate (I was indeed the last person)…
matt is waiting and looks bored and/or sympathetic…not quite sure…life must be easy when you have 2 passports eh? he’s obviously read the instruction on how to get to the hostel about 5 times and has some kind of plan I think… it must be somewhere around midnight at this point…
The next 15 minutes are chaos as matt repeatedly says “I hate this country”…we couldn’t get change for the bus (I was even offering to pay people to allow them the privilege of making change for us, but they refused). We finally get change by pretending to be deutsch and getting change from the car park man. Since we don’t know what the currency in Slovakia is we just decide to call them “thingys”. We thought we had missed the last bus (attempting to chase down the wrong bus)…but luckily the actual bus arrived shortly after we had given up hope… We did however miss out connection to the last tram of the night and whilst amusing ourselves with a camera and a Bobby McFerrin poster a taxi happened by and saw us (***stupid tourists with camera) and we got a ride to the hostel (everyone commenting on me going to Bratislava…”Have you seen hostel?”)
on checking in girl at hotel counter Looks at my passport, giggles and says…is this you? yeah thanks!
it’s probably about 12:30 now and since the pizza shop closed between the time we checked in and the time we went out looking for food we have to wander to search for a pub…The kitchen at the nearest pub is closed so we decide to choose between McDonalds, KFC, McKabob and Mr. Kabob…it’s Mr Kabob…
I guess there’s no copyright laws in Slovakia….
…best 3€ I ever spent…hang out in front of Mr Kabob and complain about how cold it is…it’s really hard to blow your nose when you are holding a kabob wrap and fries and a drink…not sure how I managed…
have a beer at pub across the street…it’s only 3€ for two beers…things are looking up…
Go back to hostel and Matt crashes…I check internet in Hostel common room….there’s some movie on and about 6 other people in the room….they speak some sort of foreign language to each other, but at key times in the movie I hear them (the other people in the room) say “What the fuck” and “fuck off”…ah the universal english language… I still am trying to figure out what the movie was…Jude Law was in it and I’m not sure if I’ve seen it or not…
go to bed at 2am….sleep poorly due blowing nose and coughing every hour or so… Wake up at about 7am… wait for Matt to wake up and hit the road about 8:30….
one quick stop in the internet room at the hostel and matt updates his facebook to note:
Matt: is ready to take on these Slovakians! Is Bratislava ready for Squires??? 🙂
being as I often have no plan when I travel I somehow managed to not think about packing an actual coat…so for 2 straight days I wear the same clothes, which is a t-shirt, a long t shirt underneath and a zipped up hoody sweatshirt… it’s bloody cold but I don’t think too much of it (yet!)…the sky is blue and the wind is blowing…
matt wants to go shopping…we walk…get coffee…notice the weather is changing a bit…think nothing of it…yet complain about how cold I am…
snow starts falling and I realize I’m still cold and it’s snowing…
walk a bit…shop a bit…have lunch at bratislava pub (what a name for a pub). Have a traditional goulash…I would never have ordered this in real life, but since I was being multicultural I had to try it…and it was delicious…and cheap…. Note that they have a student lunch for only 39 “thingys”…that is the equivalent of 1 euro for soup and bread…start thinking about how cheaply I could live there…if I had 2000 Euros could I live here for a year??? hmmmm
finish and take a cab to the train station…all taxi driver seems to want to talk about is how expensive frankfurt is and prostitution…Luckily Matt was up front so he had to talk to him.
catch train to Wien. Arrive at Wien…go to hostel…find pub for Arsenal v. ManU…spend the evening laughing at strange people and talking to locals…seems that most of the people in this particular pub were not from Wien.
Go to some aussie pub where matt makes me cry like a little girl…just a typical holiday for me… 😉 It was basically like the scene in Family guy
Brian Griffin: Stewie?
Stewie Griffin: Yeah?
Brian Griffin: It’s not your fault.
Stewie Griffin: What?
Brian Griffin: It’s not your fault.
Stewie Griffin: I know.
Brian Griffin: It’s not your fault.
Stewie Griffin: [annoyed tone] I know.
Brian Griffin: No, Stewie, Stewie. It’s not your fault.
Stewie Griffin: Don’t do this to me, man. Not you, man.
Brian Griffin: It’s not your fault.
Stewie Griffin: Screw you. Cut it out, man!
Brian Griffin: It’s not your fault.
Stewie Griffin: [cries] Why is it so hard? I didn’t know it was going to be so hard. [cries]
OK it was nothing like that, but it’s still a funny scene…I think the above is a conversation a couple of middle aged unemotional men might have…maybe Brian and stewie were in ‘nam together. Funny how much occasional insight shows up when a dog and baby have a conversation together…
bed at 2am, awak-ish at 7:30 am…complain about the cold and start hacking up my lungs as soon as we step outside…
back to Bratislava…act all touristy and take more photos…see the castle and play with statues…I actually ate a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, goat cheese and green peppers…no dressing…it was great! I felt all healthy and stuff 😉
dink around and decide to spend our last two hours at a single pub for dinner and some football…magically we found a cool place where the large bratislavan Neve Campbell was working…
she was a laugh…
go to airport…Matt goes to Toilet…
I had to look at this for half an hour while I’m waiting…
I have nothing to think about but the usual thoughts that wander into my head…-
Why did Jeff Buckley die so young?
Random song lyrics(“if the world ends
i hope you’re here with me
i think we could laugh just enough
to not die in pain
if the world ends
it won’t finish you
you’re not the type they can capture
you flit like a fly catcher ” – Guillemots),
and…
Why do people sing “Otherside” for Karaoke…(I hate when people sing songs without actually listening to the lyrics…it’s not a happy song, but people sing happily cuz it’s catchy…they miss the point – and I don’t go to Karaoke). Try to figure out why that offends and annoys me, but other things that are supposed to offend people don’t offend me…I’m always focused or thinking about on the “wrong” things.
Receive a text from Matt that breaks my thought process…It started out like this “I can’t stop pooing”…It went on, but I’m just not going to go into details in case matt’s mom reads this 😉
Go through security and observe many large women with belts as I’m standing in line…I’ve never noticed this phenomenon before, but really your pants are not in any danger of falling down and the belt can’t possibly be for fashion because you’re wearing 3 baggy layers…maybe next time just skip the belt…
see Dennis as we get on the plane…he graciously gave us a ride to Frankfurt…good man!!! Get home almost 2…set alarm for 8 yet promptly wake up at 6:47…I just can’t sleep in no matter how tired I am….
I need soup or something…
my ears are throbbing as I write this…what does pneumonia feel like?
Random out of context quote from me: Don’t ever confuse the swinns and the fedes…
Rest of the pics here when I get them up…
Matt…don’t forget about your life under the sea…I didn’t want to write it first and ruin it for you… 😉
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