I went out with a friend last night to a Spelunke here in Lüneburg. It was just supposed to be happy hour and a currywürst but it turned into a few more. There were some weird people there. That’s okay though. I’m sure someone was asking who the hell brought the foreign guy. Ahem. One lady in the bar looked just like Frau Farbissina. *shudder*

Funny beer commercial (SFW, mpeg)

Interesting article about Hundertwasser. WWHD?

Here is an interesting article

Then the alarms went off. On the panel in front him was a red pulsating button. One word flashed: “Start.”

It was Sept. 26, 1983, and Petrov was playing a principal role in one of the most harrowing incidents of the nuclear age, a false alarm signaling a U.S. missile attack.

There’s something in the beer. I just took a swig of Warsteiner and I swear i felt something floating at the top of the bottle go right down my throat. Should I be worried? Hmm. Rest of the bottle doesn’t taste weird. Oh Well.

Yesterday M and I went to the Lüneburger version of Oktoberfest. We walked around for a bit and then has some beer in the Bayernzelt. It was getting a little out of hand towards the end. I understand this is nothing like the Oktoberfest in Bayern, but I would be really interesting to see how my friends or family would react to something like that. Just as an impartial observer mind you. If they want to get up on the tables and sing a Schlager or two, they are more than welcome.

M and I have a standing invitation from our friend Angela to visit her in Munich during the real Oktoberfest. I’ll have to take her up on it next year. I’ve been in Germany for over 4 years and I haven’t been to Oktoberfest. For shame!

M. has a friend, we’ll call her Chuck, who is a very talented singer and pretty decent all around musician. She and her siblings wanted to record a song by Christy Moore for their parents’ wedding anniversary. She tried to record it in the small project studio at the university here in Lüneburg but she was a little überfordert with the situation. It happens. She called me and I went to the studio and pushed a few buttons and they were back in business. Sort of.

It didn’t really get much better after that apparently. Vibe is the most important aspect of a recording session. I told her, if she wanted, she could come by on Saturday and we could record the song here. So we did and it went really smooth. She has such a beautiful voice and I almost cried when she was recording her vocals. Once again I was reminded of what I should really be doing with my life. Alas it is not so easy at the moment.

So we recorded the song and I made a rough mix for her to give to her siblings so that when then come by and record their parts, they have a good reference to go by. It was a lot of fun and I got to try out some new mic techniques and some MIDI stuff. Hopefully soon I’ll have something to post in the audio section. The main reason it was fun was because the person I was working with was talented and professional. She didn’t get nervous and doubt herself. She wasn’t afraid to try something new. If she hit a wrong note, she went back and usually did it perfect on the next punch-in. That is what makes recording a blast.

And now for something completely different….

I got a new computer at work today. A dual 2,3 GHz G5 PowerMac with 1,5 GB RAM. Sweet. I was BBediting, FTPing, SSHing and MySQLing all over the place. I didn’t want to go home at 5:00. I was getting too much done.

And it was good

And I saw a cool picture of The Danger Guy.

A conservative German minister in a southern state has caused uproar by saying U.S. President George W. Bush should be “shot down” for his handling of the crisis in hurricane-struck New Orleans.

Oops. Those wacky Germans. You know how direct they can be.

If you can spare a little money, donate to the American Red Cross. It’s real easy and every little bit helps.

One thing many Germans like to criticize about America is the ever-present pretentiousness. The one example always given is the habit of Americans asking how you are doing when, in reality, they don’t care. I always dismissed it as just a cultural difference. “Hey, we’re just polite. Deal with it!”

While in Tucson I realized it was, in fact, extremely annoying, especially when one has been living in Germany for the last 4 years. The hotel staff would keep asking how I was doing? “Good afternoon, sir. How are you?” or “How are you doing?” I know they are just being polite but it was just weird. I have never been asked by a clerk or salesperson in Germany “Wie geht’s Ihnen?” unless I was on familiar terms with them and maybe know each other from outside of work. If you ask a German how they are doing and you don’t really know them, you might get a funny look or something akin to a “Umm….., I’m okay” and they are probably thinking you are a pretentious asshole. Or they might actually tell you and you don’t want that. Trust me on this. Ahem.

So when I was in Tucson and was walking down the hall towards a member of the hotel staff, he was all, “Hello Sir, how are you?”. I started my own mental assessment. How am I doing? Am I okay? Without waiting for my answer, the guy had already moved on down the hall. Just being friendly and polite I know but I was tempted to tell the truth; “I’m fucking hot. It’s 115 degrees outside and it’s 60 inside and every time I go in or out I get a goddamn cold or a heat stroke. How can you people live like this?!?!” Next time I saw a member of the staff approaching I knew he was going to ask how I was doing and I remembered that I wanted to tell the truth to let the guy know how pretentious and bullshit their question was. Yeah that’s right. Take that. So a split second later came the question.

“How are we doing today, sir?”

“Um, Fine. Thank you.”

Anything else would have been rude.

I guess I could get into Opera.

I’ve been listening to some Pantera again. Just thought I’d explain today’s title. I’ve also been listening to lots of Swervedriver because I just got the double CD “Juggernaut Rides” and have been featuring it prominently in my immediate surroundings. It’s good to hear a lot of those tracks again.

I’ve had really bad jet lag this week trying to get readjusted to CET. Going westward is no problem. Coming back, I find, is a bitch. But I discovered a cure for eastward travel induced jet lag; Alcohol. Yes, applying copious amounts to the affected area, the brain, via the mouth seems to do the trick. If you get to bed around 10pm and wake up around 6 or 7pm, you ease right into local time. Side effects can include mild to strong headaches, dry mouth, bad breath and agitation.

I hope to get some pictures online soon from our trip. Until then I present this picture that non-Americans find amusing.

Got back to Hamburg/Lüneburg this morning. We have to stay up till a reasonable hour tonight in the battle against jet-lag. I am not looking forward to work tomorrow. It was a good trip. We got to see lots of friends and family and see lots of the US. As with every trip there were some people I wanted to see but the amount of time and distance just didn’t pan out. So, I’m sorry if you hate me now and have crossed me off of your christmas card list.