As soon as we got back from our Christmas visit to M’s parents, I got violently ill. This included vomiting all night long and lots more extreme bodily functions. I’m feeling somewhat better but I still have a slight headache and fever. The worst part about being sick all night are the fucked up dreams you have while hallucinating between trips to the bathroom. Recently I have been reading the latest issue of Visions and a book about European history. This influenced my hallucinations in such a way that conversations in my head sounded like indi-record store hipsters talking about European events:

Hipster 1: Man, anyone that signs to the Magna Carta is giving up a part of their soul. Such corporate wanks!
Hipster 2: Pffff…totally.

Ugh, I’m starting to feel sick again.

Apparently Germans are way into their Christmas trees

The survey in Thursday’s Focus weekly news magazine found 75 percent of Germans could not contemplate Christmas without their beloved “Tannenbaum”, the traditional tree many cover lavishly with candles, lights and decorations.

But only 65 percent said spending time with relatives was also essential for a good Christmas.

Hmm, we don’t have one.

CNN has an interesting article about Sylt. I have been there a few times. It is close enough that you can make a nice day trip out of it. Seeing as it can get kind of expensive, you can save some money on hotels that way. There is some interesting architecture and history there as well. Oh, and the beaches. Very nice. In contrast to American beaches, topless sunbathing is allowed in most of Europe and no one cares. I just thought I would throw that out there. I wonder what kind of google results I’ll get.

I went to see Recartney last night. They are a great Beatles cover band. They passed the audition.

I was just looking at what the most popular search terms are this week at the G to the Double O to the EL Ee and I decided to experiment with the Google search engines. It is blatant trickery I know, but I just wanted to see what effect, if any, it has on my site’s traffic. We’ll call it googlebait. As you can see, I’ve started with the title already but I’m gonna try to take it a little further.

So anyway I was having this crazy dream about Wendie Jo Sperber, who was in Bosom Buddies with Tom Hanks and she was telling me her cool idea about getting a face transplant. I was all like, yeah whatever, when suddenly Dita Von Teese walked in with some crips and started thugging it up crazy, shooting the place up like gangbusters and doing the crip walk. I said to my girl Charlize Theron, “Is it me or is Anna Benson totally hot?” Charlize said, “Oh Yeah, totally.” Suddenly the scenery and landscape changes and I’m alone with James Blunt and Cynthia Watros and they are wishing me a Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa!!! I couldn’t take it anymore so I split to a club and ended up hanging out with John Lennon and Richard Pryor. They started exchanging crazy cocaine stories and started arguing about who was the biggest loser. We couldn’t decide so we called Reggie Bush in from next door to settle the argument. The scene changes again and Lennon and I are in the middle of Strawberry Fields tripping on some crazy acid. Lennon says to me,
“Did you see the new King Kong yet?”
“That the one with Naomi Watts?,” says I.
“Yeah.”
“Nah, I don’t know. I don’t want to ruin what memories I have left of the original”
“Look, all I’m saying, is give it a chance.”

This is just an experiment. If you land at this post while searching for something else, look around. Or split. I don’t care.

I finally got my Aufenthaltserlaubnis from the Ausländerbehörde today. I could have picked it up earlier but I didn’t have time and they are open at really inconvenient hours. It was extended until the end of November 2008. Previously I was required to work full-time for my current employer. If I were to quit or lose my job, I would need to either find a new one, enroll at university or leave Germany. With the visa just issued, I can theoretically work for whomever hires me. Not that I am actively searching, but it is nice to have options. Of course with the current unemployment situation in Germany, I’m thankful to have a job at all.

There is a campaign here in Germany with billboards and TV spots showing typical and atypical Germans with the slogan, “Du bist Deutschland“. I never took the time to look into it further because, as much as I like it here, ich bin nicht Deutschland. So imagine my surprise when there was an article about it in the New York Times with the headline, “Germans Told to Cheer Up. ‘Why Should We?’ Some Say.”

Discuss.

Here is an interesting article in the Sunday New York Times about some of the problems being faced in Germany concerning the integration of Turkish/Muslim immigrants and how their traditions and values clash with those of a modern Germany. Most disturbing is how women in many of these cultures are treated and how German lawmakers, in the interest of touting multi-culturalism, are apprehensive of doing anything about it. Sad but true. I’m all for multi-culturalism. It makes life interesting. However, to say you believe in human rights and then do nothing to enforce them for a certain part of the population, is basically saying that they don’t mean anything. That’s the whole point.

And I found this: A subjective comparison of Germany and the United States. I’m not sure if I posted it already but it is a pretty interesting read.